Fionna and Marshall Lee
by whatsernamex
Summary: Marshall Lee feels that he is too evil to be around and is secretly lonely. Fionna doesn't think he is as evil as he says he is and loves hanging out with him. The two friends, slowly but surely, find themselves in an unlikely relationship after Fionna's eighteenth birthday. (I'm trying to keep the personalities the same from the show/comics...and the innocence...no lemons!)
1. Chapter 1: Cleaning Day

Chapter One: Cleaning Day

"Gah! I _hate _cleaning day!" The words echoed throughout the treehouse in the land of Aaa. Fionna plopped herself down on the couch while Cake started picking up random piles of clothes and treasures in the living room.

"Girl, you're just gonna have to get over it. Do you see this house right now? I don't like cleaning either, but even _I _can't stand living in this glob forsaken mess!" Cake continued to layer the piles of junk in her ever-growing paw. She lifted up the pile next to the window and discovered BMO lying on her back. Realizing that she was no longer buried alive, BMO sat up, blinked a couple times, and ran out of the room.

"I'm free!"

Cake looked at the little gadget scampering away and then at Fionna. "How long do you think she was under their?"

Fionna shook her head, "I have no idea." She stood up and wandered to the kitchen, "C'mon. I wanna go hang out with Flame Prince or something." She opened up the fridge and pulled out a piece of pie. Closing the fridge, she exclaimed, "We could go see Monochromicorn! Huh? Huh," She elbowed the air towards Cake, pushing her eyebrows up.

Cake rolled her eyes, "Uh-uh. You are _not _getting out of cleaning today. No matter how much I'd love to go see my man. And no matter how much _you_ want to see _your _man."

Fionna laughed, almost spitting out a chunk of pie, "Hey, what's so wrong with liking FP?" She really liked him, but she always got embarrassed—and a bit defensive—when someone mentioned it.

"Nothing, nothing at all, but you need to stop trying to find distractions. CLEAN."

"Aw man," Fionna sighed with another mouthful of pie.

"Now go to the bathroom and start scrubbing the toilet or something."

"That's low, Cake. That's really low." She dragged her feet to the bathroom and looked around. She glared at the toilet. "You don't even look dirty." She shoved the rest of the pie in her mouth and opened the toilet up, "Oh, glob, never mind." Whilst scrubbing, she wondered why Cake was all of the sudden caring about how their house looked. She couldn't even remember a time when they cleaned at all. The most disconcerting fact was that Cake had woken up _early_ to _vacuum_. Maybe she already planned to have Monochromicorn over later, and she was trying to not look like a slob. Whatever the reason, Fionna didn't like this.

After a couple minutes of half-hearted scrubbing, Fionna yelled to Cake, "Can I be done now?"

She heard a call back, "Not until that throne is sparkly clean!"

Fionna huffed and continued to scrub on her knees, until she heard a ghostly laugh. She scowled, having her guesses about just who exactly was in her bathroom. "Stuck cleaning toilets today, Fionna?"

The cooped up adventuress turned toward the doorway. "Marshall Lee. What are you doing here?" She interrogated, embarrassed. Fionna definitely did not want anyone seeing her doing such _unthinkable _things.

"Just looking for somewhere to hang, but I'm not about to clean, so I'll j—"

"No! I am _so _bored. I would feel bad ditching Cake, but I am going totes crazy in here, man," Fionna sounded exasperated and desperate in her voice. "Please?" She looked at Marshall with the best puppy-dog face she could manage.

Marshall stared at the crazy, blue eyes that seemed to be ready to pop if they got any bigger. He laughed; she had even pushed out a quivering bottom lip. "Okay, okay. But, because I am doing you this favor, you are to never make that face again."

Fionna's face bounced back to its original position with a giant smile, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you," she exclaimed as she jumped up and landed right in front of him.

He put a finger to his lips, "Shhh."

"Oh, right," she whispered this time, not wanting Cake to hear.

"Alright let's go," Marshall wrapped an arm around Fionna, and they flew out of the bathroom window.

BMO popped her head out from behind the shower curtain, "Oh! Fionna is going to get kicked in her butt bones! Cake!" she ran out of the bathroom.


	2. Chapter 2: Big Trouble

Chapter 2: Big Trouble

**Author's Note: Hello, readers. :) I just want to let you know that I hope to upload a new chapter at least every week, if not two or three times a week. I am also trying to keep the personalities of the characters the same from the show/comics. Things will move slow so to not make things seem rushed. Thank you for reading, and I hope you do enjoy my story.**

"That's cheating! I should have won fair and square!"

"Nu-uh! I was _totally _playing by the rules! What do you think?"

"I'd say it was fair. Let's keep it clean, guys!"

Marshall and Fionna watched the three banana guards arm-wrestle from above. They flew to the Candy Kingdom and sat atop a wall, overlooking one of the banana guards' post. It was a rather cloudy day, a good break in the hot weather that Aaa seemed to be having. Marshall laughed, "Dude, banana guards are so dumb." He was floating beside Fionna, hands behind his head, legs crossed; he looked like he could fall asleep.

"Hey! We can hear you," one of the banana guards hollered. Fionna giggled as Marshall rolled his eyes.

They sat on the wall in silence, watching the banana guards mess around. Fionna was happy that she wasn't cleaning anymore, but this was boring. "This blows, dude. Couldn't you have flown us to a dungeon or secret cave, or anything besides this?"

"What, being with me isn't fun enough?" He drifted next to Fionna, wrapped an arm around her waist, and leaned his head on hers, "You're breaking my heart, Fi." His voice sounded hurt, but Fionna knew he was playing around.

The awkward adventuress pushed Marshall's body away and punched his arm, "Stop being so weird, weirdo."

"Oh? Is that all you got," he teased.

She stood up, "Hecks no." She was smiling now; finally, something interesting to do. Reaching up for her sword, Fionna started to run towards Marshall. Seeing the oncoming "threat", he flew up higher, and Fionna ran right under him. He was laughing at her feeble attempts to get him.

He raced down and pinned her to the top of the wall, "Giving up?"

She smiled mischievously and said, "Nope." Marshall felt her foot kick him in the chest, shocking him just enough to let go of Fionna, who rolled off the wall.

"Fionna!" He peered over the wall, should he be concerned? The wall was only maybe six feet tall, so she was probably fine. He decided to go down and try to find her. He looked over towards the bushes that rested at the base of the wall, seeing Fionna's bunny ears poking up. He smiled and turned invisible, floating behind her.

Fionna felt the bushes rustle behind her and twisted to see where he was, sword in hand. She knew he was there and before she could do anything, Marshall laughed and took her sword. "Marshall! Give that back!"

Man did he love messing with her, "Come and get it." He flew over the wall, out of sight.

Fionna was seriously mad now. "He took my sword! I am going to kill that vampire!" She started heading toward Marshall Lee's house when she felt the earth move around her.

"Fionna!"

_Uh-oh,_ Fionna thought. She turned around slowly, putting on the best poker face she could scrounge up. "Hey, Cake. I'm really-"

Cake was huge and very angry. She yelled down from fifty feet up, "I _know_ you did not just bail on me, leaving me to do all of that stupid cleaning myself!"

She shrunk down to put Fionna on her back and then expanded until she only had to take maybe five steps and they were back at the tree house.


	3. Chapter 3: Trust Issues

The sun was going down, and Cake and Fionna finally finished cleaning their tree house. "Now, see? We did it. It wasn't _fun_, but we did it," Cake said as she threw the last dagger into their room. She noticed that Fionna's sword wasn't next to the bed, where she always put it, "Hey, where's your sword?"

Fionna strolled to the kitchen and grabbed a bag of chips. Grabbing a handful, she bounced onto the couch next to BMO, "Marshall took it. That dirt bag is going to pay."

Cake's eyes widened, and she jumped off the steps leading to their bedroom, "You mean to tell me, you were hanging with that _paste-face?!_" Fionna tried to speak, but Cake cut her off, "You are eighteen years old, well, about to be, and you still act so irresponsible!"

Fionna was offended, "Hey! I can handle myself! Plus, even though Marshall is a handful, he's our friend."

Cake settled down a little bit, "Baby cakes, I just don't like you hanging out with him when I don't know about it. He's...sketchy." She lay down on the ground, exhausted from all that unwanted cleaning.

"Cake, I know you worry about me, but believe me, I can take care of myself. I know Marshall wouldn't hurt me; I wouldn't be hanging out with him if I didn't trust him!"

Speaking up, BMO said, "I like Marshall Lee. He is mysterious and tough."

Fionna looked at Cake, "See? BMO likes him."

BMO continued, "And I bet he would tear the heads off anyone who tried to mess with you!"

"Um, yeah," sometimes Cake worried about BMO, "anyway, are you excited, Fionna?"

Through the chips in her mouth she replied, "For what?"

"Your birthday! Duh!" Cake sat up in disbelief.

"Oh yeah," Fionna swallowed, "When is that again?"

"You don't even know when your own birthday is? Honey, where have you gone to?"

"Happy birthday!" BMO's arms were flailing around in the air.

"No, BMO, Fionna's birthday is tomorrow," Cake grabbed a soda off the coffee table, and slurped. "I think you need to go to bed; you seem a little out of it tonight."

"What?! I have to go get my sword back! And I'm not even tired."

Cake rolled her eyes, "Ok, but I'm going with you."

"Okay!"

They got up to leave, "BMO? Will you be alright by yourself?" Cake just wanted to make sure she wouldn't blow anything up while they were away.

"Yes, Cake. I think I will make dinner!" She hopped off the couch and skipped toward the stove.

"Sounds great! See ya in a few," Fionna was itching to get her weapon back.

The pair left the tree house in the night. Fionna wanted to get their as fast as they could, so she hopped on Cake's back, who ran, or tried to run, most of the way to Marshall Lee's home. They slowed their approached as they got closer and closer to the cave. Fionna jumped from Cake's back as gently as she could and tip-toed to a window. She looked inside and saw Marshall going into a portal—The Nightosphere. "Let me see! What's that good for nothing –" Cake shrunk down to bee size and peered in through the window, "See! That boy is doing his scary shady, son-of-a-demon business! I don't trust him." Cake was whispering as loud as she could without alerting the vampire.

The portal closed and Fionna turned to Cake, "We're going in."

Cake shook her head, "No way am I going in there."

"He probably left it in his house, Cake! We have to check it out."

Cake sighed, "Fine. I will keep watch in the living room; you go check the rest of his house."

Fionna tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. Shrinking even more to fit in the keyhole, Cake went through it and unlocked the door. One foot after the other, Fionna carefully stepped throughout the house, not wanting to disturb anything. She started on the main floor and moved to the upstairs. It could not be found anywhere! _Where the shlup would he be keeping it? _She wondered. She opened the closet in Marshall's room and rummaged through the heaps of clothes. While moving the clothes around, a red notebook fell out.

She looked at the stairs to see if anyone was coming, and when she saw that no one was, she sat down in the closet and opened the book up. "Huh, song lyrics." She was flipping through the pages when she heard a thump somewhere in the house. The notebook fell to the floor, and Fionna cautiously stood, trying not to make a sound. She had almost made it out of Marshall's bedroom when something grabbed her shoulders and pinned her to the wall.

"_What_ are you doing here?"

"Oh, hi Marshall Lee," Fionna's voice was shaking just a little bit; his sudden appearance startled her. She stared at the demon eyes, which were staring right back, but then she remembered why she was there. "You know why I'm here. Give me my sword back, man. I gotta have my sword."

"Do you know what I do to intruders?" His hands were still holding Fionna to the wall. He leaned in slowly towards her neck. Fionna was blushing now; there was barely any distance between them, and butterflies seemed to be flying around in her stomach. His teeth touched the side of her neck; Fionna's heart was racing.

"Marshall!" Fionna tried to knee him in the groin.

The vampire flew backwards and sat on his bed, laughing. "Did you really think I was gonna do it? You know I'm playing, Fionna."

Cake sprinted up the stairs yelling, "Fionna! I think Marshall is – Oh."

"Yeah, really great job, Cake."

"How long have you guys been here?" Marshall was amused that the pair thought they could get away with breaking into his house. He would've been able to smell Fionna's scent on his stuff anyway. She always smells so good..._Wait, what am I thinking?_ Marshall shook that thought from his head.

"I don't know, an hour? Gimme my sword, dude."

Marshall rolled his eyes and drifted back towards Fionna. She stood near the doorway, leery of his approach, but kind of wanting to know what he was going to do. He put his hands back on her shoulders and said in his deep voice, "No." He reached out and grabbed Cake, already wrapping an arm around Fionna, and flew them out the door before they knew what happened.


	4. Chapter 4: Happy Birthday

Chapter Four: Happy Birthday

Fionna and Marshall Lee were sitting in his living room. Marshall was playing his guitar, serenading Fionna, who felt a sense of warmth in his voice. She really liked spending time with him; even if he thought he was too evil, he seemed to have a softer side than she thought. He played the final chord in his song and glanced up at Fionna through his black hair. She smiled at him, reaching her hand towards his face when she felt a thud against her stomach.

"Happy birthday!" BMO jumped up and down on Fionna while she lay in her bed.

Cake stood by the bed with a plate of pancakes and a side of spaghetti, "Good morning, baby cakes! What time did you go to sleep last night? You slept in till twelve; you feeling okay?"

Fionna rubbed her eyes and stretched; "I don't know, I guess it was just late when we got home last night." She wasn't going to admit that she was actually up for the majority of the night thinking about that stubborn vampire. "Aw, thanks, Cake. And thank you BMO, for waking me up so violently," she added sarcastically.

"You are welcome!" BMO smiled cheerfully and hopped next to Fionna, lying on her side, resting her head on her arm, "So what were dreaming about, Fionna? You were having good dreams!"

"Um, what?"

"You were smiling very big!"

"Oh, um...I can't remember," Fionna lied. Avoiding the topic, she threw her blanket on top of BMO and pounced from the bed to Cake, "Alright! I love me my pancakes and spaghetti."

Cake was proud of the beautiful flapjacks she had made, "Yep, made them just for you! Well, I had a couple earlier; BMO made the spaghetti."

"Spaghetti!" BMO slipped from the bundle of cloth she was covered in, "I made it with my secret ingredients."

"Oh, awesome! Let me just get changed, guys, and then I will dig in." BMO ran out of the bedroom and Cake followed afterward and closed the door. Fionna was about to grab her clothes when she heard the door creak open a little bit. Looking back, she said, "BMO, get out of here!" The corner of BMO's screen peeked through the crack in the door and then disappeared. Fionna sighed; she couldn't stop thinking about that dream she had. Did she..._like_ Marshall Lee? Yeah she liked him, probably better than he liked himself, but did she like _like_ him? When he was so close yesterday, she felt so weird. That weird feeling that she usually only gets when she's hanging with Flame Prince, but FP doesn't tease her like Marshall does. And, to be honest, she kind of liked the way he teased her. "Gah! What's going on with my head?"

She sat on the floor in her pajamas and leaned against the side of the bed. "Fionna? Is everything ok in there?"

"Yeah, Cake! I'll be out in a minute!" she responded to the voice through the door. She changed with record time and temporarily pushed her unruly thoughts to the back of her mind. Today was her birthday; she shouldn't be stressing over guys.

She plopped herself down on the booth in the kitchen to eat her birthday breakfast. "Wow, the pancakes are really good, Cake," she said with a mouthful of the delicious food.

"Have you tried the spaghetti yet?" BMO was sitting next to Fionna.

"No, I haven't, but I'm about to!" Fionna moved her fork towards the pasta.

"Okay!" BMO ran to the couch and seemed to be taking cover behind the armrest, watching Fionna with a scary intensity.

Fionna's fork slowed, she didn't like how BMO was acting and was starting to wonder what the secret ingredients were...

She slowly took a bite, chewing very carefully, not knowing what would happen. When nothing happened BMO stood on the couch, "Darn." She hopped off and ran up the steps to the upstairs.

Fionna looked at Cake, who just shrugged her shoulders. "So, you wanna go hang with FP?"

Fionna didn't perk up at the name like she normally did, "Not really," she wanted to go back to Marshall Lee's house and put things back to normal. Last night had to be just some weird, one-time thing, nothing permanent.

Cake scrutinized Fionna, "What up? You're acting weird."

Fionna didn't know if she should share her thoughts with Cake. Was it something that Cake really _had _to know? Yeah, Cake was her friend; she couldn't keep secrets from her. "I think...I think I like Marshall Lee."

Cake's body froze, eyes widening, "Why in the land of Aaa do you like that vampire? I thought you liked FP!"

Fionna sat back against the booth, "I know, I know. I can't believe it either. And, I think I still like FP, but I just like Mashall Lee for different reasons. I'm still figuring it out, okay? It may just be a phase, jeez."

"Well, you will be seeing them both at your party later tonight, so you better figure it out then and put an end to this insane crazy talk," Cake immediately regretted her words.

"Party? You're planning a party for me?"

Cake was so disappointed in herself; she sighed, "Yes, it was _supposed_ to be a surprise party, but I guess I just blew it. Just try to act surprised later okay? There are a lot of people who bet I wouldn't be able to keep it a secret, and, if they found out, I'd be out by fifty bucks."

"Wait...Is that why you made me clean yesterday?" Fionna sat up, eyes twitching with annoyance.

Cake smiled, "Yes. I wasn't about to clean this whole house by myself! Jeez, be grateful I'm throwing you a party in the first place! It's the least you could've done in return!"

"You know, I think you deserve to throw away fifty dollars!"

"No! Please! Seriously, Fionna, no jokes, I didn't know they were serious about actually betting money!"

"Ok, but my present better be worth all that cleaning." Fionna spoke through a mouthful of pancake.


	5. Chapter 5: Decisions, Decisions

Chapter Five: Decisions, Decisions

The tree house was off limits. Cake and BMO were setting up supplies for Fionna's "surprise" party, and Fionna was not allowed on the premises; if the party wasn't a surprise anymore, the décor was gonna be. She was thinking of some places to go since she had a few hours to kill 'til the party. _Hm...Where to go?_ She wanted to go to Marshall Lee's and just act normal again. She had known him for years now and not once, until maybe now, has she felt anything for him. Yeah, she knew he was pretty good looking, but he just was too..._ugh! _She just didn't know.

There was also Flame Prince. She hadn't seen him in a few days, and she also wanted to rekindle her feelings for him. She doesn't get to hang out with him much in the first place, so it would be nice to see him.

As she was walking away from the house, pondering on what her destination was exactly, she found herself walking toward the Candy Kingdom. Prince Gumball was cool and always had something sciency and awesome to check out. After a few minutes, Fionna entered the kingdom, making her way to PG's castle. When she walked through the door, Peppermint Butler addressed her, "Hello, Fionna, and happy birthday, might I add. Prince Gumball is in his laboratory."

"Ok, thanks, Peps!" She headed toward his lab, a little farther into the building. She walked in the door, "Hey, PG! What's going on?"

Prince Gumball was hunched over a worktable, welding something. When he heard Fionna's voice, he shot up, "Oh, Hey Fionna." He pushed the project so that it was placed behind his body where Fionna couldn't see it. "What're you doing here?"

Fionna noticed his actions right away, "Just wanting somewhere to hang," she knew PG was invited to her party, and that he was one of the people who bet against Cake, "Cake and BMO kicked me out of the house for some reason. I think they were gonna play some Card Wars." She was impressed that she could think so quick on her feet. "So, what's behind your back, Gumball?"

Gumball's face was calm, but his eyes were frantic, _Think of a lie, think of a lie, think of a lie,_ "It's your birthday present." Shame overcame him; he wasn't that great at telling lies. "I guess since it's your birthday, and you're here, I might as well give it to you now." He stepped to the side and showcased the object with his arms.

Fionna stared at it for a moment; it seemed to be a metal ring with a box tangent to one part, displaying different settings chosen with a dial. "Oh, cool, it's a...what is it?"

PG smiled, "I know you like hanging out with Flame Prince," Fionna blushed a little bit, "and I know he can only speak cat." Fionna nodded. That was one of the problems with Flame Prince: he couldn't speak English. Cake had to translate every time she wanted to say something to the guy. "If he wears this device around his neck, everything he says will be translated into English!"

Fionna's eyes widened, "Oh my glob, that's awesome!" Gumball looked satisfied with her response.

"I knew you'd love it. In a way, it's kind of a gift for all of us. Whenever we talk prince stuff, we can't understand each other! Now, things can run smoothly."

"Sweet."

"You see, the dial twists to a language setting, which indicates what the output language will be. Right now it's set on English, so you can understand FP. I made another one for you, and that one is set on Cat, so he can understand you! I even added Japanese, just in case."

"Wow. Thanks, Gumball; it's really awesome. But, why does my gift seem to focus around me and Flame Prince? I don't know, but that just seems a little weird."

Gumball shot an eyebrow up and gave a smirk, "I know you have a little crush on that cat-speaking-flame."

If Fionna wasn't blushing before, she was definitely blushing now, "How did you know about that?"

He turned to his invention, "Oh, I have connections...but I'm not oblivious. I see how you look at him. But I don't understand how you could like someone when you can't even speak the same language. How many words do you even think you've said to him? Five?"

Fionna's defensiveness was setting in, "I have totally said more than five words to him! It's been at least ten! Cake translates for me sometimes."

"What do you know about him?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you, no offense. Thank you for the translators, now maybe I _can_ get to know him a little better." She crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

"I'm sorry, Fionna," Gumball felt kind of bad. He was trying to help her out, but he didn't understand her infatuation with Flame Prince. It was just that: an infatuation. "Here," he grabbed the metal rings, "take this, and have a happy birthday, please forgive me."

Fionna reluctantly looked at him and took the translators. "Thanks, Gumball," she gave him a half-hearted hug and left the room.

"See you later!" she heard through the door as she walked down the hall.

She left the kingdom, heading back towards the tree house. Even if she couldn't go through the front door, she'd climb through her bedroom window. She just wanted to go home. That conversation with Gumball made her think. _Why _do_ I like FP? I honestly know more about Marshall Lee than I do him._ She looked down at the translator. _Should I give it to him?_ _Yeah, I should. I totally like FP. He's hot, and he seems to be a good prince...I guess I _don't_ really know all that much about him..._

She arrived at her house and looked at her window; there were some branches that could assist the climb up. After fitting the translators into her backpack, she climbed through the window, and threw her backpack on the bed. She followed it, landing on the bed, taking Gumball's gifts from the backpack and in her hands. After a few minutes, she looked at the clock; it was only two. She still had six hours until her party! Felling exhausted from no sleep, and still needing to kill time, Fionna did something she never thought she would do willingly: decided to take a nap. She threw the inventions in the corner and bundled herself up in her bed for the afternoon.


	6. Chapter 6: Personal Admissions

Chapter Six: Personal Admissions

Marshall Lee was sitting in his living room, waiting to go to Fionna's surprise party. He knew he had made her mad yesterday, but he also knew that his present would make up for that. The more he thought about how excited she'd be when he gave it to her, the more anxious he was to just get over there. No matter how much he loved teasing her, he actually cared about her; he just didn't know how to show it. They've been friends for forever, so of course he's going to care about her. He knows he's reckless, but that's one of his biggest regrets. He hates pushing her away every now and then, but he's just so impulsive. He looked over at the little black box that sat on the other side of the couch. _I hope she still isn't mad at me..._

He had been trying to make the time go by fast, playing his guitar, writing some music, sleeping; he looked at the clock, "Only one hour left," he mumbled. Marshall sighed and peered at the box again. "Whatever, I'm going."

He picked up the box and walked out the door, launching into the sky. A few minutes went by; the whole while he was thinking about Fionna. She probably wasn't there. Cake would've kept her busy somehow so she wouldn't find out about the party. But he did bet that Cake would blow it...he'd just have to find out when he got there. As usual, he flew into the window; why take the front door like everyone else? The window leading to Fionna's room was already open, but he didn't think too much of it. When he flew in, he saw Fionna sleeping in her bed and immediately blushed. She was smiling a bit; she looked so peaceful. He couldn't help but notice how cute she was; her hat was slipping off, and her clothes were twisted like she'd been turning in her sleep. _Restless dreaming, _he thought. _I better go downstairs and see what Cake's up to._ He drifted toward the door when he heard Fionna mumble in her sleep.

"Mmm-shal," she twisted in her sleep, rolling to her other side, away from him. His ears perked up at that.

"What, Fionna?" He wasn't sure if she had seen him or not; he whispered in his uncertainty. He floated to the side of her bed and sat down. When she didn't respond, he knew she was definitely sleeping. He got up and headed for the door. _Wait a minute, she's dreaming about me._ He went back to his sitting position by her side. She was still tossing and turning every now and then, _she must not be sleeping that deeply... "_Fionna..."

"Hm, what?"

Her eyes were still closed, and she didn't seem to be fully awake. Marshall decided to push it a little farther. "Are you dreaming about me, Fi? He used his deep voice, teasingly seductive.

"Mmm, yeah." All of her words were mumbled, like she was still dreaming.

He smiled at her answer,_ she's dreaming about me? Maybe because she's mad at me still..._ He frowned at that, wishing he hadn't made her so mad. "Are you mad at me?"

"Yep."

"You should see your birthday present. I can guarantee you won't be mad at me anymore." Fionna said nothing; she just shot her arm out and half-heartedly punched his chest. He held her wrist; Marshall had no idea if she would remember any of this, _probably not_, _let's have a little fun._ He leaned in close to her ear, "You like me, don't you, Fionna?"

She twisted around, and Marshall Lee let her wrist go. Fionna responded under her breath, "Yeah."

Marshall blushed at this; she had never admitted it before. He might've suspected it, but he never thought she actually did! _How could she? I'm just not the kind of person that she should be with. I'm too evil...And she's the hero of Aaa for glob's sake!_ Then he remembered that she was half asleep and not responding coherently. She might not actually like him; maybe she thinks she's talking to someone else. She _is _dreaming of course. Still by her ear, he whispered, "I like you too." He knew he shouldn't say it, but she probably wouldn't remember this, and this was just part of his reckless personality.

Moving away from the bed, he heard Fionna stirring a little more than she had been earlier. He looked back; she was sitting up. Before he could turn invisible, she looked over at him. "Marshall? What are you doing in my room?" She blushed; she had just been dreaming about him, and now he was right there. "I wasn't talking in my sleep was I?"

"Oh, hey, Fionna!" He scratched his head awkwardly. "I, uh, no, you weren't talking in your sleep. I was just coming through to go downstairs for, uh," _she doesn't know about the party,_ "to see BMO."

Fionna was relieved that she hadn't spoken in her sleep; she had said some embarrassing things in that dream. "Wait, to see BMO? Since when do you come over here to see BMO?"

"What? I love that little guy! We hang out all the time!" He walked over to her and sat on the bed.

"BMO is a girl."

"How can a robot have a gender?" When Fionna started to respond, Marshall said, "You know what, never mind, I'm just gonna—"

"Hey wait, what's that?" Fionna pointedly looked at the little black box in Marshall's hand.

Marshall smiled slyly, "You're birthday present."

Fionna sat up a little straighter, "Ooo, what is it?" She got up on her knees and leaned toward Marshall.

He tensed up and tried to not blush at their sudden proximity. "Um," he cleared his throat, "do you want to see?"

"Yeah!" She jumped so that she sat next to him. He handed her the box and let her open it. When she looked inside, she saw a bracelet. "It's...actually very beautiful." She usually wasn't one for jewelry, but this was awesome. It was purple and black with a skull charm. That wasn't the coolest part, though. The purple and black coloring acted like smoke and moved throughout the bracelet, making it look enchanted. "Oh my glob, this is awesome."

Marshall laughed, "You haven't even seen everything." He took the bracelet out of the box with one hand and Fionna;s right arm with the other. Fionna blushed, and Marshall noticed as he said, "Think about your sword. Go into battle mode. Will yourself to have a weapon in hand." Fionna nodded and closed her eyes. _Man was she beautiful;_ he just couldn't help staring at her as she activated the seemingly innocent piece of jewelry. He let go of her arm and watched as Fionna opened her eyes to see the magic. The smoke in the bracelet expanded down the length of her hand and beyond. It formed the silhouette of a sword, eventually solidifying to a black blade, the purple smoke still moving inside. Marshall touched the skull that now hung from the hilt that Fionna held in her hand, "Do you like it?" he asked softly.

Fionna stared at the weapon with wide eyes, "It's beautiful. Where did you get it?"

Marshall responded, "I didn't get it anywhere; I made it. Well, I had a little help; I do have connections in the Nightosphere." He looked away from the blade and toward Fionna, who seemed to be tearing up a little bit. "Fionna, are you okay?" He was worried that she didn't like it as much as her other one.

"No one except Cake has ever made me a sword, and, no offense to Cake, but this is the most awesome sword that's ever been given to me." She thought for a few seconds, looking at the weapon in her hand, which seemed to be increasingly familiar. "Is this my sword?"

Marshall laughed softly, "Yeah, I hope you don't mind. And I also hope this means you're not mad at me anymore?"

Fionna turned to him, not thinking about the gift anymore. The smoke retracted into its bracelet form, wrapping itself around Fionna's wrist once more. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her chin on his shoulder, "Thank you. This is just...this is just amazing," she whispered into Marshall Lee's ear. She felt like she was being a little bit sappy, so she added, "I can't wait to kick some bad guy butt with this tomorrow."

Shocked by the sudden gesture, Marshall blushed and tensed up. After she said thank you, though, his heart melted. _I guess I really do like her, _he laughed at his personal admission and wrapped his arms around her, "Happy birthday."


	7. Chapter 7: The Party

Chapter Seven: The Party

"So, I guess I should go downstairs...you know, to see BMO." Fionna had let Marshall Lee go and stood up, swinging her sword around, preparing for battle.

"Yeah, I guess so," Fionna smiled as she swung the sword around and pointed it at the vampire sitting on her bed. She knew he was there for the party and was amused by his last minute excuse – surely this clever, quick-witted, smooth-talking guy could think quicker on his feet - "You wouldn't want to keep BMO waiting." Sarcasm was dripping from her voice.

Marshall eyed her skeptically, "You know, don't you?"

She put the sword down, "About what?" she questioned with fake confusion.

He smirked at her pathetic attempt to hide it, "You know what."

She smiled, "Yeah, I know."

"Did Cake tell you?"

"Nah, I walked in on her and BMO putting up decorations. They thought I left," Fionna was loyal to her friend; she didn't want Marshall to find out Cake actually _did_.

"Man, I almost got ten bucks. Anyway, hey, if you know, then I can just hang with you until the party is actually supposed to start..." he knew there was still about an hour until he really had to be down there, and he much rather would've liked to spend that time with someone he was actually friends with. He did well in social situations...usually, but Fionna was the only one that he actually felt accepted him as her friend. He would never admit that to anyone, though.

"Well, I think you should still go," she would've actually liked to spend time with him, but she was still feeling a little weird about everything, _especially_ after that last scene. Plus, she had to get out of there and act like she hadn't been there; everyone might suspect that she knew if she didn't act like she was somewhere else, distracted, for the day. "Maybe you can help Cake get ready for the party; you're the first person here," she knocked on the wall, "You can hear everything in this place; no one has come through the door yet." She smiled inside, realizing that he was the first person there._ Ugh, why do I care, _she thought to herself.

Marshall was disappointed, "You sure?"

"Yeah," she said as she headed toward the window.

"Ok, I'll see you later, FI." He smiled as he watched the clever girl jump through the window, her sword retracting to its bracelet form.

"See ya!" Fionna jumped down the branches to the ground; she looked at her sword. "Wow this thing is awesome!" She switched between its sword and bracelet form a few times, getting a feel for her newly acquired weapon. She couldn't believe Marshall had done this for her. Then she remembered the hug, _Gah! I can't believe I _hugged _him! He must think I'm such a girl! Weak! _Her cheeks filled with red, _"_I'm so weird!"

She sat behind the tree, out of sight of the front door.

Marshall Lee left the bedroom and drifted down to the bottom level of the tree house. He had turned invisible and made his way to where BMO was in the living room. She was sitting on the coffee table next to Fionna's birthday cake with some tiny figurines.

She was sitting amongst random objects scattered around her, holding a small Fionna in one hand, a fork in the other, "Oh no! Run away!" The fork attacked the little Fionna, who fought back, "No! Have to save people from suspicious silverware!" The fork stabbed Fionna, "Ugh-pluwah"

"Boo," Marshall was visible once more, scaring BMO off the table.

"Ahhhh!" She fell to the wooden floor on her screen. When she pushed herself up, she used the table for support, and, when she looked up, she saw Marshall Lee lying in the air next to the table. "Oh, Marshall Lee! That was very good one!" She laughed, and got back up on the table.

Cake ran in, "BMO? What's going on in here?" She turned to see Marshall Lee, "Oh, I should've figured. Okay, come in the kitchen and help me put these samiches on some plates."

Marshall replied, "Whatevs," and followed Cake into the other room.

She assigned him a job and showed him what to do, going to do something else on the other side of the kitchen. "So, how long have you been here? You been watching us like a creep? 'Cuz I don't like no creeps."

He was off in his own little world. He was so glad Fionna loved his gift to her; he really wanted her to like it. His mind was still reeling about the "conversation" he had with her. _Does she remember what she said? It probably doesn't mean anything, I mean, she was _sleeping!_ Or at least half sleeping..._"MARHSALL!" He snapped out of his rambling thoughts.

"What?"

"How long were you creepin'?"

"Oh, I don't know, all day?"

Cake looked back at him with a ferocity that bore into his soul, "You better be pulling my tail. That ain't cool."

Marshall laughed, "Come on! Lighten up, Cake. I was here for maybe ten minutes, let it go."

They finished getting ready for the party and waited for the rest of the guests to arrive. One by one, a ton of people showed up: Gumball, Flame Prince, Lumpy Space Prince, Hot Dog Prince, even the Ice Queen. She had to be watched at all times, though; she had her eyes on the door, salivating at all the princes walking in. Marshall just sat on the couch, letting people come to him; he didn't feel like making an effort to mingle. Why should he? He was really only there for Fionna.

Once everyone was there, Cake yelled out, "Okay, everyone! I need everyone's attention!" No one looked at her. "HEY! I'M GONNA NEED YA'LL TO LISTEN UP," her mouth grew to yell with the biggest voice she could manage. "Fionna should be coming soon, so everyone needs to get behind something and I will turn the lights off." This was basically all for show, _Best fifty bucks I will ever save._ She went to the light switch while everyone hid; Marshall just went invisible, this way he could see Fionna lovely acting skills as she walked in the door.

Meanwhile, outside, Fionna pulled out this wrist watch she had found a while ago from her backpack. "Almost eight, alright time to go in." She stood from her spot under the tree, heading for the door.

Everyone was having a great time, except the Ice Queen, who had to be kicked out because she wouldn't leave the princes alone. Fionna had opened her presents, and everyone was eating cake after a few hours of socializing. Gumball came up to Fionna, who was now sitting at the couch next to Marshall Lee, wearing her bracelet. "Hey, Fionna! So what did FP think of my invention?"

Fionna didn't want PG to feel bad, but she didn't know what else to say, "Oh, well, I haven't given them to him yet."

"Them? You're supposed to keep one too Fionna, so you can—"

"Yeah, I got it. Uh, I will give it to him soon, ok? Thanks PG." she walked away and climbed the steps leading to her room. He had been bugging her all night about that invention. Not to mention FP kept trying to talk to her through Cake. Of course she had some small talk conversations with him and everyone else, but she was tired and getting sick of socializing. Marshall noticed how tense she got when Gumball mentioned his "invention", she had seemed a little stressed all night, so he went to check up on her.

He followed her into her room and sat on the bed next to her. She was staring at the rings sitting in the corner. "Are those Gumballs' 'inventions'?"

"Yeah, I just, I will have to give them to FP later."

"Why are you supposed to keep one?"

Fionna blushed, she hated that PG knew she used to have a crush on Flame Prince. He had called it an _infatuation._ Maybe he was right. She sighed, "Because Gumball knew that I had a crush on Flame Prince and we couldn't really talk to each other. Through this, we can talk." She spoke slowly, just letting it all out. She wasn't really a fan of sharing her feelings, especially since she was getting used to the fact that maybe she really did like Marshall Lee.

Marshall felt like he'd been slapped in the face by the whole world. He didn't want to show it, though, so he played it off, "You like Flame Prince?" he laughed outright, "The guy who speaks _cat_?! Baby, if all I need to do to get your attention is speak another language, I will learn cat myself!" He thought about his words, "Wait, I mean—"

Fionna realized it too, "Whoa, uh, you want my attention?"

"I mean, I just mean, uh,"

Fionna grinned, eyeing the stuttering king through squinted eyes, "You like me, don't you Marshall Lee?" So many times had he teased her about that in the past, well, now it was her turn! _But, I really do like him, I just won't let him have that satisfaction...yet._

"Oh, stop, Fionna, I think we both know that it's you who has a thing for me!"

"I don't know," she was swinging her feet off the side of the bed, "I could've sworn you said that you want my attention, and you would do it by learning a language that it pretty difficult. That sounds like full on determination to me." She laughed, "Just admit it, and we can be done with this."

Marshall laughed too but he just stared at Fionna, right into her eyes. He leaned in close to her; Fionna's stomach filled with butterflies again. He spoke softly, "I do like you. I like you a lot, but if you have a thing for Flame Prince, what am I supposed to do?"

Fionna stared right back into his eyes, speaking just as soft, "Didn't you hear me when I told you earlier? I said _had_. I _had_ a crush on Flame Prince."

Marshalls' eyes softened, "So you don't anymore?"

"No, I said _had_." _How many times do I have to say it?_

He thought for a moment, "Fi, be real, okay? Don't get mad."

"Okay..."

"You already admitted to me that you like me."

"What?" How was that at all possible? She blushed all over.

"You talk in your sleep." He smiled; he liked shocking her, keeping her on her toes.

She tried to act cool, "PPfftt, Nah. I wasn't sleeping! I was just acting like it! Did you see my performance downstairs? I am an amazing actress!"

He rolled his eyes and backed away a little bit; looking down at the enchanted sword he had given to Fionna, he touched, making the purple smoke move around, "We will have to try out your new and improved sword tomorrow."

Fionna's butterflies went away, "Aw, man, yeah!" Without thinking, her sword appeared in her hand, nicking Marshall on his finger. She stood and looked at him to see if he was okay, but he wasn't there. She looked around the room, "Marshall?"


	8. Chapter 8: Seemingly Happy

Three weeks past, and Fionna couldn't find Marshall Lee. _Thank glob he has a brother,_ she thought. She looked over at the guy next to her, "Hey Marshall Leroy!"

-This was a horrible joke, referencing the Ice King's suggestion in "Bad Little Boy". No more jokes. :) -

"Oh glob, oh glob, oh glob!" Fionna looked all over her room. She thought Marshall was just messing around with her. While that was still not out of the realm of possibility, it had been at least ten minutes! Where was he? "Marshall, if you're in here, I'm going to kill you. This isn't funny!"

Cake popped her head up the steps, "Everything alright up here, baby?"

Fionna panicked, "Um, yeah! I just, I'm, coming down." Her sword retracted, "He's probably just messing with me," she mumbled to herself.

She headed toward the steps, taking one last look at her bedroom. In the corner, her presents from Gumball were still sitting. She went back and grabbed them, planning on giving them to Flame Prince. When she came downstairs, everyone was still socializing; she looked over and saw Cake preparing to make an announcement. "Let's heat this party up!" She pressed a button on the boom box sitting next to her and flipped a switch on the wall. A disco ball started spinning from the ceiling. Everyone started cheering and began to dance. Fionna looked at the scene with wonder.

She walked over to Cake, who was acting like she was using a turntable, "How did you get the disco ball all set up?"

"Gumball helped! _Now_ it's a party!"

Fionna laughed half-heartedly and looked over to see Flame Prince standing at the side of the room. "Flame Prince!"

He could understand his name well enough in English, so he looked over, seeing Fionna running toward him. He waved and saw her put on a weird, metal necklace around her neck.

Fionna stood a couple feet from FP, not wanting to get burned. She had slipped the translator on and began to tell him that these translators were now his, and he could use them to talk to anyone, "こんにちは!" _Wait, what? _"Oh!" she laughed, "It's set to Japanese!"

Flame Prince was more confused than ever; Fionna had started to speak in a tongue he had never heard. Her voice didn't even sound the same. He just shrugged his shoulders.

Fionna adjusted the dial on the metal ring and began to speak again. She would speak English, but all she heard were meows. "Hey, Flame Prince! Gumball made these translators for you!" His jaw was hanging open; she had spoken cat.

"Meow!" He was acting all excited, but Fionna didn't know what he was trying to say.

"Oh I forgot! You have to wear one too," she checked to make sure the dial was set to English and handed him the metal ring quickly.

He fitted it on his neck and began to speak, "I...can finally...talk to people myself!" He spoke slowly at first, getting used to hearing the English words coming out of his mouth, kind of.

"Yeah, FP! Why don't you try it out on some people! It'll be fun!" She started to take off the translator when Flame Prince began to speak again.

"Fionna, now that we can finally speak to each other without someone else being there, I want to tell you something I've been holding back for years—"

She dismissed him, tossing the translator to him, "Not now, FP. I have more cake to eat."

A huge weight had been lifted off of Fionna, well, two, actually. She had given Flame Prince the translators and mentally cut ties with her infatuation with him. She also knew now that Marshall liked her, and she liked him; where that situation would go, she'd have to find out when he finally came back from where ever he disappeared to. She had replayed the event over and over in her head. He had disappeared instantly when she accidently stabbed him with the sword. Was it a coincidence? She didn't know. Nonetheless, the rest of her night was almost stress free. She stuffed herself with cake until she almost puked, caught up with a few people she hadn't seen in a while, and overall had a great time.

Around eleven, everyone had finally left, and Cake, Fionna, and BMO were left to clean the mess up. Fionna lifted a cup off the coffee table in the living room and put it in the trash bag that she held in her hand. Someone tapped her shoulder and handed her another cup; she looked back and took the cup, "Thanks." Realizing who it was, she turned back again, "Marshall! What the junk? What happened to you?"

He levitated above the couch, laughing, he said, "Oh, I was just messing with your head," Fionna glared at him, _I knew it,_ she thought. "And now you know what the sword does."

"No I don't." Fionna was tired of his games.

"Oh, right. Well, when you wound someone with the blade of that sword, they are sent to the Nightosphere. Normally, they wouldn't be able to escape, but I'm kind of _from_ there, so...yeah. Here I am."

She looked at her bracelet, "Whoa, that's awesome."

"Yeah, I don't know who made that sword, but, whoever it was, they are probably pretty good looking." He winked at Fionna.

Fionna punched his arm, grinning, "Shut up and start cleaning."

They all cleaned the house and ended up sprawled out on the floor in the living room.

BMO sounded bored, "Guys, this was not fun. Not at all."

Cake rolled her eyes, "You helped make the mess; you help clean it. I ain't cleaning all by myself.

Fionna and Marshall were lying close to each other. They listened to Cake and BMO's dispute until Cake fell asleep, and BMO walked off. They sat up and looked at Cake; she was on her back, sound asleep. Marshall and Fionna got up and walked out the front door. They started laughing when the door shut behind them, late night slappy hour was setting in. "Well, that was fun, even though you ditched for like half the party," Fionna said.

"I was only there for the important parts." He thought for a moment, "Are we still up for tomorrow? Testing out your sword?"

Fionna smiled, "Yeah, definitely."

"Awesome," Marshall couldn't wait, "I'll see you tomorrow." He leaned toward Fionna and kissed her forehead, immediately making Fionna blush, which made him laugh. "Goodnight, Fi." He flew toward his home, leaving Fionna at her doorstep.

"Goodnight."


	9. Chapter 9: Testing the Sword

Fionna woke up early the next day. She couldn't wait to try out her new sword, but she had been thinking about it. _This is some pretty serious stuff, I'll have to find someone really evil to send to the Nightosphere...but who?_ She knew that she needed to be responsible with this crazy awesome weapon. She walked past Cake, who was still in her drawer, sound asleep. Fionna had picked her up and brought her to her bed last night after she came inside. She was kind of disappointed that Cake wasn't awake yet; Fionna didn't like making her own breakfast. _I should wake her up, _she thought. _Aw, but she looks so happy and cute...Nah, she's waking up, _"Cake!"

Cake rolled around on her pillow.

"CAKE!"

The sleeping cat woke with a start and jumped off the pillow in surprise. "What? What's wrong, baby cakes?!"

"Can you make me breakfast?"

Fionna watched Cake's eyes roam to the clock on the wall. "Are you kidding me? You woke me up at seven in the morning because you're too lazy to make your own _food_?"

"C'mon, Cake, you know I don't even make good food. It never tastes right."

"Just make some cereal!"

"That's one of my worst dishes!"

"That doesn't even make any sense!"

"Please?" Fionna wasn't above mock-begging.

"Fine. But only because I'm totally awake now. I'm gonna kick your butt later, just so you know, though."

Fionna excitedly replied, "Sweet," and walked over to grab her sword of the Nightosphere, slipping it on her wrist.

Cake watched her as she stuffed the pillow in and closed the drawer she was just sleeping in. "Where did you get that?"

"Marshall Lee gave it to me, for my birthday."

Fionna's hair blew back because Cake ran over so fast; she squinted at the smoky bracelet, "You sure it's not cursed or something. That sure looks cursed to me."

"No, it's not cursed! It's enchanted!" Fionna thought for a moment, "Well, it actually might be cursed...I don't know, but it's pretty awesome anyways!"

Cake slowly approached the bracelet with an outstretched finger. She poked it and took back her hand quickly. "Hmm...I don't know, Fionna. What does it do?"

"Marshall told me that if the sword wounds someone with the blade, they will be sent to the Nightosphere. I accidently sent him there yesterday, but he can come back whenever; everyone else can't come back."

Through her still squinted eyes, Cake looked at the bracelet, "Let me see it."

Fionna morphed the bracelet into its sword form, the black and purple smoke forming the hilt and blade, the skull charm dangling around Fionna's fingers. She saw Cakes' eyes widen, "Awesome, isn't it?"

Cake reluctantly replied, "Yes it is. But a weapon like that is some serious junk. You can't just go around messing with stuff like that; you need to take it seriously."

Rolling her eyes, Fionna said, "I know, I _know!_ Me and Marshall are going to test it out today. Find some evil doers and kick their butts. Don't worry!"

"You're hanging out with him today? Baby, is there something that you aren't telling me?" Cake was suspicious now.

Fionna blushed, "Oh, yeah. Last night, Marshall told me that he likes me."

"And?"

"And, what? He likes me; I like him. That's the story so far, nothing happened."

Cake relaxed a little, "Ok, I guess that makes me feel better. You just don't let him push you around, he seems to not think about what he's doing sometimes."

"Okay, I will stand my ground, Cake, jeez. He's not as bad as you think."

"So is today a...date?"

"What? No, maybe, yes, I don't know. I guess so, it will be just us so...sure, yeah, it's a date."

"Well, I planned on going to Monochromicorn's today...do you want me to stay here, just in case?"

"No, go have fun with MoChro, I can handle myself, Cake.

They went downstairs, and Cake made breakfast for the two of them; BMO joined them later and requested a cup of tea. Cake left after breakfast was all done, giving one last "be careful" to Fionna, who just shrugged it off. _She needs to trust me a little bit more,_ she thought, _and Marshall, for that matter._

Fionna finished off a glass of milk and walked toward the door; she couldn't wait to go to Marshall's. She turned to BMO, who was sitting at the booth with her cup of tea, "Bye, BMO! Don't blow anything up!"

BMO replied, "I will try not to!"

It took a few minutes to get to Marshall's cave. When she reached the mouth of it, she slowed her pace. She wanted to sneak up on him, so she was trying to use her stealth moves like she did the other night with Cake. She hid behind one bush and rolled to another, trying not to be spotted. She scanned the house; one window was open on the second floor. _Now if I could just find a way to—Ah ha!_ She spotted the basketball hoop. She climbed the hoop with ease but not silence. Jumping through the window, she landed with a thud, "Man, I gotta practice on my ninja skills," she mumbled to herself.

"I'll say," Marshall was standing behind her, against the wall. He laughed, "Fionna, are you trying to sneak up on me?" He was rather amused at that idea.

"Um, duh. And I would've totally done it if your basketball hoop was easier to climb, or you just kept a ladder by your window and make things easier on me!"

He rolled his eyes, "You're here really early, you know? I haven't even had breakfast yet."

Fionna didn't want to wait any longer, "C'mon!" she dropped to her knees, trying to look as pitiful as she could. She started to whimper.

Marshall laughed at Fionna's feeble attempts, "Nope, I got some stuff downstairs; it'll just be a couple minutes, jeez." He grabbed her shoulders and stood her up, "Stop that, you look pitiful."

"Well, that's just more of my great acting," she remarked. They walked downstairs and Fionna sat on the couch, while Marshall went to the kitchen, grabbing some cherries. He sucked the red out of them and turned to Fionna, who was swinging her sword around again.

"You gotta stop doing that; you're gonna send me to the Nightosphere again, and I'm gonna have to come all the way back here. You ready?"

"Just killin' time, 'paste-face'," she winked at him, "and yeah, I'm ready."

They left his cave and embarked on their adventure. "So, where are we going?" Marshall left the planning to Fionna, this was her day.

"Hmmmm," she thought for a minute. "Let's go to the Ice Kingdom. She's probably got some ice monsters that need to be taught a lesson. "

Marshall rose a couple feet beside Fionna, "Well, in that case," he held out his hand, "my lady." He winked at her, and she took his hand. They began to fly, and Marshall ended up having to just hold Fionna by her waist, so she wasn't struggling not to fall.

They touched down at the front door of the Ice Queen's Castle, heading inside. They slowly approached the main room where they could hear the Ice Queen talking to one of her penguins.

"Does this dress make me look fat?"

"Wenk."

"Do you think my Gumball will like it?"

"Wenk wenk."

"What? How dare you! Do you know –"

Marshall turned to Fionna, "Let me handle this, you wait here."

Fionna just nodded, watching as Marshall turned invisible. She looked around, but, of course, couldn't see him. She went down the hall, closer to the room, and peered inside. The penguin that the Ice Queen was yelling at was starting to rise, "Wenk! Wenk! Wenk!"

The Ice Queen's nagging faded in confusion, "What is going on?"

The penguin was flapping it's little flippers, "Wenk! Wenk!"

"Are you flying? Oh, I'm so proud of you!"

The penguin started to move toward the window, leading the Ice Queen out of the room. "Oh, you want to go outside? Okay, let's go outside." The Ice Queen flew out of the window after the penguin. Fionna remained squatted outside of the room until Marshall appeared in front of her.

"Let's hope she has some monsters sitting around." He grabbed her hand and helped her up.

"Did you just throw a penguin out of the window?"

Marshall laughed, "Yeah." They laughed at the scene and then got it together.

Fionna was in charge now, "Okay, if she has any ice monsters around here, they'd be down in her weird ice vaults, which should be..." she looked around the room, "there." She pointed to a doorway that lead to many twists and turns.

"Alright, let's check this out." Marshall was all for breaking into the Ice Queen's place and messing with her stuff.

Fionna stepped one foot inside the doorway and began to slide down the crazy ice slide. "Woo hoo!"

Marshall flew above her, "Shhh! Practice your 'ninja skills', remember?"

She didn't hear him over her cheering, "Hey! Stop flying and go down this thing!"

He rolled his eyes and dropped to the ice, sliding behind Fionna. He had to admit, it was pretty fun. Fionna hit the end of the slide and skidded to a stop. Marshall didn't realize how fast he was going and tumbled over her, leaving them both lying on the ice. "Why hello there," Marshall had landed on top of Fionna, pinning her to the ice.

She smiled, "You're kind of in my way; I'm trying to kick butt here."

They got up and Marshall examined the room, "Well, I don't think there is any butt to kick here."

Fionna examined the room now; there was nothing! "Aw, man! I could've sworn this is where she would keep them!"

"Keep what?" The Ice Queen was behind them, staring them down with hatred, especially Fionna. "What are you doing in my castle? Didn't your parents ever tell you not to break into other peoples' houses?"

Marshall replied, "No, actually. My mom probably encouraged it."

Fionna had her sword ready and the Ice Queen replied, "Well, then allow me to teach you a lesson your mother never did." Shards of ice blasted from her palms to the ground in front of Fionna and Marshall.

Fionna laughed, "Missed!"

"Oh, did I?"

By her voice, Fionna knew something was coming. To her delight, ice monsters rose from the ice beneath them. Marshall and Fionna turned to each other and high fived, "Aw yeah!"

The Ice Queen was angry now, "What are you doing? These are scary monsters! Fear me!"

Fionna took the lead, slashing at one ice monster and another. With each pass, the beasts would dissipate in the air, vanishing to the Nightosphere. Marshall started punching at the monsters, but he didn't have to do much; Fionna was pretty much taking care of everything.

The Ice Queen shot shard after shard into the ground, birthing more ice monsters. "Hm, I sense a strange magic here," she mumbled to herself. She noticed that the sword Fionna was destroying her monsters with had the look of the magic that was only native to the Nightosphere. She stopped firing off shards, "Where did you get that?"

Fionna looked disappointed that there were no more monsters to slay, "The Nightosphere, duh."

Marshall eyed the Queen, "Don't get any ideas. You take that sword, and I will send you to the Nightosphere."

"That's exactly what I'm worried about; leave. I don't want that kind of magic anywhere near me." That last thing she wanted was to be taken out of this world and put into another one without her Gumball. _I don't even think there are any good looking guys _down _there! How would I survive!_

Fionna butted in, "Don't worry, Ice Queen. We don't like you, but we don't not like you enough to send you to the _Nightosphere!_ I just want to kick some monster butt."

The Ice Queen looked at the pair, "Tell you what, I will make you all the monsters you want, and you don't ever touch me with that thing. Ever."

"Deal," Fionna was excited, not that she liked the Ice Queen, but, hey, unlimited monsters don't come along all that often.

They spent a couple more hours slaying the ice monsters; the Ice Queen got bored almost immediately and slouched in a chair, half-heartedly making monsters with her finger. Fionna sighed, "Okay, I think I'm done," She wiped the sweat from her forehead, "This has been fun."

"Yeah, well, speak for yourself." The Ice Queen was glad it was finally over.

Marshall said, "Alright, do you want to come back to my house?"

Fionna swung her sword, "Yeah, sure!" Unknowingly, Fionna had hit one of the Ice Queen's penguins with her sword, making it vanish in thin air.

The Ice Queen stood up, "Gunther!"

Fionna could see the rage in the Queens' eyes. Fionna yelled, "I'm so sorry, Ice Queen! I didn't mean to do it!"

She flew up in the air and prepared to zap the offenders with the sharpest zap of ice she could conjure up. Fionna yelled to Marshall, "Run!"

Marshall grabbed Fionna and flew back the way they came, toward his cave.


	10. Chapter 10: The Escape

Chapter Ten: The Escape

"Where do we go?" Marshall was frantically flying away from the Ice Kingdom. His first thought was to go to his house, but the Ice Queen would expect that. Fionna was in Marshall's tight grip, looking back awkwardly to see if the Ice Queen was following them.

To Fionna's disappointment, the Ice Queen was at least fifty yards away, "You can't keep running forever!"

Her grip on Marshall tightened, "I don't care, just _not _your house or mine." Marshall heard the maniacal threats behind them and sped up, flying through some clouds.

"Maybe we'll lose her through here," his speed ever increasing as he spoke. They were moving so fast that the water particles in the cloud were hitting Fionna's face like bullets; she buried her face in Marshall's chest. The adrenaline was running so strong through both of them that they didn't even realize their closeness. Marshall looked down at her, "Sorry, Fi. Maybe we will be in the clear soon." He adjusted her hat so it helped shield her face. They flew for what seemed like hours, the Ice Queen's voice gradually fading away.

Fionna looked up when she no longer felt the water bullets on her skin. Everything she saw was pink. "The Candy Kingdom?"

Marshall just shrugged, his speed slowing enough to actually see more than just colors around them, "I didn't know where else to go." He flew them to the west most edge of the pink kingdom, hoping to avoid attention. They collapsed at the base of a tree; they flew out far enough that there were a few brown and green trees scattered among the pink and white candy trees. Marshall let Fionna go and leaned against the brown trunk, "Well, that was exhausting."

Fionna plopped herself on the ground and buried her face in her knees, "I just sent an innocent little penguin to the Nightosphere. I'm a monster! Why am I so _stupid?_"

"You're not stupid, and you're certainly not a monster." He wanted to wrap her in his arms, but he didn't know if that was the right thing to do. It was driving him crazy; he wanted to comfort her, but how? "Maybe I can go get him."

Fionna's head shot up, "You can get him back?"

"Well, there's a chance. When someone is sent to the Nightosphere, they randomly land in any location. He could be anywhere, but I could try to find him."

"I want to go with you."

"I don't know about that," there were some pretty messed up creatures in the Nightosphere. He didn't want to put Fionna in any more danger than she already was. He knew she could handle herself; she was awesome like that. But he knew the Ice Queen was really nothing Fionna couldn't take care of; who knows how she'd fair in his realm.

"No, I _am _going with you. Let's go." She stood up just as Marshall heard the Ice Queen's mumbling not too far away.

He shot up and snatched Fionna, hiding behind a nearby bush. He lay on the ground, Fionna beside him.

"I know you two are somewhere. Taking my Gunther away from me, who do you think you are? I will get him back, and you. Just you wait." The Ice Queen was mumbling to herself, looking all around, _especially_ up in the trees.

_Good thing I didn't go up there..._That was honestly Marshall's first thought, but it would've made too much noise.

The Ice Queen was a few trees away from their bush, inching closer and closer. Marshall cautiously turned his head toward Fionna and whispered in her ear, "Do _not_ move or make a noise, okay?"

She replied with a small nod. He turned back toward the bush; he could monitor their threat through the branches. Fionna could hear the mumbling get louder and louder; she felt around for Marshall's hand and laced her fingers with his, trying to reassure him. He didn't chance moving his head, but he squeezed her hand in response.

Fionna was kind of laughing in her head. She went on adventures all the time, and, right now, Marshall was the one trying to protect _her_. She had to admit, though, she would've probably been in a frozen block of ice back at the Ice Kingdom if it hadn't been for Marshall's quick escape. And who knew what the Ice Queen would do now? For all Fionna knew, she might be impaled with a shard of ice if she was caught. She thought it best in the end to just let Marshall lead this situation.

"But _how_ to get revenge on the two of you..."

A blue dress eventually colored the scenery in front of the bush; Marshall and Fionna seemed to both be holding their breathe. The queen gasped, Marshall tensed to take action. "Oh, that is _evil_!" She flew off, cackling. Marshall and Fionna instantly relaxed.

"Well, she's gone for now, but apparently she thinks she knows a way to have revenge on me," Fionna sat up, stretching the anxiety of the past few minutes away.

Marshall sat up with her, laughing, "Man, that was the craziest adrenaline rush."

"Yeah, that usually happens when you go on adventures. This time was a little different, though. The Ice Queen isn't usually _that_ mean. Yeah, she tries to steal PG and stuff, but she's never out for _blood!_"

Marshall internally laughed at the irony. Fionna was freaked because she thought that the Ice Queen was out for "blood". _Does she not understand that she's hanging out with a vampire? But I don't really go out for blood..._ "Yeah, you're right. But...you _did_ send one of her pets to the Nightosphere..."

Fionna sighed and lay back on the ground. "Glob, I am a monster."

Marshall lay beside her, their arms resting next to one another. Looking at her, he said sternly, "Fionna. You're not a monster. Remember? I can go and try to find the little guy and everything will be better. Chill out, everything will be okay. Okay?"

He couldn't tell if he was doing well at this comforting thing. Fionna put her arms over her face, covering her eyes. "Right. But I am going with you. I am responsible for all of this – I will be the one to get him. I just feel so awful. I _knew_ I should've been more careful! I am so childish!"

Marshall rolled his eyes, "Fionna, you are such a drama queen." Fionna removed her arms from her face and glared at him. "He's probably fine. The worst thing that can happen is...well, he's probably fine."

Fionna put her arms at her side and said, "Nice pep talk. Whatevs, let's just go get him."

"Wait, I think we should leave in the morning. It will be safer." He didn't think that was necessarily true, but he wanted Fionna to relax and get some sleep; she looked very tired with the bags under her eyes and the sluggish way she moved.

She sighed; she wanted to go _now._ Gunther needed to come back and be out of that place! But she knew she was tired and wouldn't be able to accomplish much in her current state. "Okay," she sat up, "can you take me to my tree house?"

Marshall remained on the ground, "Well, my house is closer, and you did say that you wanted to come hang at my house when we were leaving the Ice Kingdom."

_Cake would definitely be worried,_ Fionna thought. She looked at Marshall, who was closing his eyes, lying back on his arms. _It _would _make sense to stay at his house and leave early in the morning..._She gave in. "Okay, fine. Let's go."

Marshall got up, "Jeez, you don't have to sound so mad about it. I thought you enjoyed my company?" He held out a hand to help her up.

Refusing the gesture, she got up herself and said, "I do, very much so. I'm just stressed out about everything."

"Okay," he didn't know what else to say. He began to rise next to Fionna and reached down to lift her up.

"No, I want to walk. I'm sick of you always carrying me around; I have legs you know."

Marshall laughed and planted his feet on the ground, "Alright, but my way is faster. Perk of being the son of a demon." Fionna rolled her eyes and started heading off. He was always bringing up that he is the "son of a demon". _He isn't as bad as he thinks he is. He just tried to protect me from the Ice Queen for Glob's sake._ "Fionna? My house is this way," he pointed to the opposite direction.

Fionna sighed and turned around. Marshall fell into step beside her. He could feel her fresh anxiety radiating off of her; he reached for her hand. She looked up at him; being with him right now was actually calming her down. She no longer felt butterflies when she was near him. She just felt right.

She slowed her pace until both of them were standing still. Marshall didn't know what was the matter, "What's wrong Fi—" He was cut off by Fionna's lips softly landing on his. Marshalls' eyes widened in shock, but it didn't last long. They kissed for what seemed like forever and then finally broke away. Their hands remained together as they continued on their way.


	11. Chapter 11: Just the Beginning

Chapter Eleven: Just the Beginning

Marshall opened the door for Fionna to step inside. She glided through and sat on the couch – she really was exhausted. She had been having way too many late nights and early mornings. Marshall shut the door and followed her to the couch, sitting beside her. "You look really tired."

"Gee, thanks, what a compliment." Fionna pushed at Marshall kiddingly. "Why don't you get me a pillow so I can get some sleep?"

He laughed, "I didn't mean to insult you. And, you know it's really early, right? It's only seven or something."

Fionna had relaxed some since before, but she was still on edge about what happened, "Well, tomorrow is going to be an early morning, so we need to get some sleep."

Marshall asked, "How early?"

"Early."

Groaning, Marshall stood up and said, "Fine, if it will make you feel better. But, before we go to bed, aren't you hungry?"

Fionna realized she hadn't eaten since that morning, "Oh, yeah, I guess I am." She stood from the couch and wandered to the kitchen.

"Just help yourself to whatevs. I'm going to get some stuff." He flew upstairs, out of sight.

Fionna turned to the fridge. Inside, she found an assortment of red colored foods. She dug around a bit and couldn't find anything she wanted, so she sifted through the stuff in the cabinets. In one of them, she found a bag of chips, but it was too high to reach. She climbed up on the counter and grabbed the bag, which she promptly jumped from the counter with in hand. Marshall reappeared in the kitchen, wearing sweats. "Were you just on my counter?"

"Problem solving." Fionna walked past Marshall and repositioned herself on his couch.

Marshall pulled out some strawberries from the fridge and ate the red from them, "You don't have to sleep on the couch. Probably wouldn't be comfortable."

Fionna wasn't going to argue with that; the couch was awful. "Nah, I'm cool."

He tossed the colorless berries aside and headed toward the stairs. "No, come on."

She sighed, not wanting to move, but happy to have another option beside the couch, "Okay."

They entered Marshall's bedroom, which looked like it had been hastily cleaned. "You can take my bed for the night."

Fionna blushed a little, "Um, no it's okay. It's your bed; I'll be fine with the couch."

"Fionna, just take it. I float anyway, it doesn't matter to me. Plus, you'll get better sleep on that, and you will need it for tomorrow."

"Okay, okay. Thanks, Marshall." She smiled at him.

He realized that she didn't have a change of clothes, "Oh, do you want to borrow something to sleep in? Or..."

Fionna laughed, "No, I'm fine. You're being really nice, have you gone soft, Marshall Lee?"

Smirking, Marshall eyed Fionna. He was at her side in a flash, pushing her down on the bed, her chips falling to the floor. He stared down at Fionna, who was pinned to the bed below him, and his smirk faded, "Only for you." _Oh grob, that sounded so lame._

Fionna was still smiling, "Aw, that's sweet, but you just knocked my chips from my hand! I was still eating those!"

Marshall laughed at the exasperation in her voice as Fionna pushed at him. His grip on her arms tightened, he had predicted that she would attempt a move like that. Fionna grinned at him, formulating a plan. She reached her head up and kissed Marshall, shocking him just enough for her to get in one good push. After a short struggle, Marshall was pinned to the bed under Fionna. "How do _you_ like it?"

He looked up at Fionna, beaming, "Fionna, maybe you _are_ a monster."

Her stress returned to her; she felt her exhaustion hitting her all over again. She let Marshall go and stood up, "Okay, I'm really tired. We should go to bed."

Marshall sat up, "Oh, alright." _I thought we were having fun? _He walked to the door, "Good night."

Fionna snuggled herself up under the covers, "Good night."

Marshall left the room and Fionna was left to her thoughts. _I am a monster. What kind of hero am I? I need to redeem myself. Tomorrow I will find Gunther, and everything will be back to normal._

* * *

_BANG BANG BANG!_

Marshall fell from his hovering sleep. _What was that banging?_ "Hello?"

"You better open up this door right now, before I crash it in!"

_Aw man._ "Coming!"

He opened up the door to find Cake standing in front of him. "Hi, Cake."

The fuming feline grew so she was looking down on Marshall Lee, "_Where_ is Fionna."

"She's sleeping, Cake. Chill out, she's fine."

Cake looked Marshall Lee over; he was in his pajamas, which was expected at two in the morning. Cake had been waiting at the tree house for Fionna's return, but fell asleep. When she woke up and saw it was the middle of the night, and Fionna _still _wasn't there, she knew where to look.

"Where is she?"

"My bed."

"What?" Cake looked about ready to explode.

Realizing what Cake was thinking, Marshall explained, "No, no, no, nothing happened. She took my bed, and I slept on the couch. We weren't even on the same floors!"

Cake shook her head. _Maybe I do jump to conclusions with this guy._ "Okay, well, she needs to come home."

"Why can't she stay here? She's sleeping. She's fine. She just turned eighteen; you don't think she's mature enough to leave the house, yet? You aren't her mother."

This only made Cake mad again. "No, I'm not. But I am her best friend, and I look after her."

"Well, maybe it's time someone else is allowed to look after her!"

"Boy, you better watch yourself. I will let her be, but you better not do anything foolish." Cake turned toward the door when she saw Fionna walking down the stairs.

"What's going on down here? Cake?" She looked at Marshall, who seemed rather aggravated, "What are you doing here?"

Cake was a little offended, "I'm making sure you aren't vampire food. You decided to stay the night at _his_ house and didn't even tell me! You could've called or something!"

Fionna sighed, "I'm sorry, Cake. Something came up, and it just ended up this way." She remembered that Cake didn't know what happened. When she was about to explain, another figured appeared in the dimly lit living room.

Marshall groaned, "Oh, great! Let's just invite everyone over! Have a party at two A.M.!" He had never had this many people in his house at one time; he was feeling a little claustrophobic.

"Now, Marshy, is that any way to address your mother?"

"What are you doing here? How did you even get here? You can't leave the Nightosphere without being summoned."

The Lady of Evils' eyes wandered over to Fionna; she sighed. "I'm just checking in. I have been told about your little friend here." She walked over to the confused human standing next to Cake. "So _this _is your new _friend_, huh?"

Marshall and Cake were both tensing up at the closeness of the demon and Fionna. Examining Fionna's face, she reached out and picked up a chunk of Fionna's hair, letting it fall from her hand. "Yes, she is."

"She's human."

"Very observant, aren't you?"

His moms' eyes snapped to him. "Watch your tone."

Cake butted in, "Hey, lady, you watch yourself." She knew this woman was evil, and she was still really close to Fionna.

"Oh? Am I doing something wrong? No. I'm not. Your friends here are, however. Marshall Lee, I do not approve of this relationship."

This time, Fionna butted in, "Well, that's too bad. Your son doesn't need your approval on anything." Marshall was astounded at Fionna's guts. He hadn't seen anyone talk to his mother like that except him. But he knew there was going to be fallout now.

His mom glared at Fionna and said, "You, missy, would look great on my wall in the Nightosphere. Let's go." She reached around and grabbed Fionna by her arms.

Cake yelled, "Hey! Leave my girl alone!" She stretched out her arms, trying to get the demon off her friend.

Marshall flew to their aid and tried to pull his mom away. She grabbed Cakes' arms and, in a struggle, grabbed Cake, immobilizing her. "On second thought, maybe I'll take _you _instead." She ripped Cake from the squabble and flew out the door.

Fionna and Marshall fell to the ground, but quickly scrambled to their feet. They ran to the door, "Cake!" Fionna yelled. The pair scanned the surrounding area but came up short. "I can't find them anywhere!"

Marshall turned to Fionna, who was frantically searching everywhere a second time, "Fionna, their gone. She took her to the Nightosphere."


	12. Chapter 12: Plan B

Chapter Twelve: Plan B

"We have to go _now."_ Fionna was done waiting around. Marshall's mom had kidnapped Cake, and now she _had_ to get to the Nightosphere.

"Okay, okay." Marshall ran a hand through his hair nervously. _How am I going to get her back? Finding the penguin is one thing; he is probably in some random molten field or something. Cake? She is definitely being held captive by my mom; this is not going to be easy._ "I can try to talk to her, but if she doesn't want to give Cake up, she isn't going to. She will kick me out of there as soon as I appear. Um, I guess we will have to try to get through her defenses undetected..."

"Anything to get Cake back," she thought for a second, "and Gunther." She felt bad that she had forgotten about him in the chaos. "We just have to go!"

"Let me try to talk to her first. I don't how she found out, but somehow she found out about my...feelings for you." His face turned red, "She just needs to come to terms with what I'm doing." He walked to the front door and said, "Do you think the Ice Queen could've done this?"

Fionna stood on the porch over the river running through the cave, looking back at him with stress oozing from her every pore, "I don't know. But if she did, she is going to pay."

Marshall entered the Nightosphere, in front of where his mother was sitting on her "throne". He assumed cake was in the box at his moms' feet, which looked to be made of metal, enchanted with the same magic Fionna's sword was. "Mom, let her go. Just give her to me, and I will be out of here."

She sat with her legs crossed, gazing down at the dead, who had been waiting for centuries to speak with their leader. "Marshall Lee, why do I have people in Aaa informing me that my son, the Vampire King, is in a relationship with a human? Have you forgotten who you are? What makes you think that is in the slightest a good idea?"

"I really like her, mom. I don't know why _you _can't accept that. Let it go. Kidnapping her friend isn't going to solve anything."

"See, this is the problem. You used to be so evil. Now, you're just so...so _weak!_ And it probably has everything to do with living in that sickeningly colorful place with those do-gooders. If you would just have stayed here with me, _you_ would be the person these people are here to see!" She waved her arm toward the herd of people standing below them. "'Kidnapping isn't going to solve anything'. Who cares? I raised you to do that sort of thing for _fun!"_

"But you didn't raise me! If anything, I raised myself! And I will not take over this place, _ever!_ I _don't want to!_ Give me the cat and let me leave."

His words cut deeper than he would've thought. His mom simply stated, "No." With the wave of her hand, a portal opened that everyone but her could enter, and an undead henchmen came from behind her and pushed Marshall through.

Marshall landed in his living room on his back with an "_umph!"._ His sudden fall from no where interrupted Fionna's pacing of the room. She ran to his side and asked, "Are you okay? What happened?" She saw that Cake wasn't with him, so plan A obviously didn't work.

She helped him up, and they sat on the couch. "Well, she isn't going to give her up easily, as expected." He watched Fionna nod in response. "And she's very mad at me because of you."

Fionna couldn't help but find the situation a tad bit funny. _We aren't even that serious yet. We literally _just_ got together_ yesterday._ It's not like we are getting married or anything._ "Okay, so what is plan B?"

"She will be watching the Nightosphere like crazy. She usually does that. We will need to enter on the outskirts of her fortress and make our way there undetected. It won't be easy, but it will be the only way to get Cake back."

"Why can't we just get a wizard to poof her back here with us?"

"Cake is in a box enchanted with the same magic your sword is. It isn't affected by any other magic, so nothing can affect Cake while she is in there."

Fionna slumped at that answer, _at least she is safe?_ She didn't know how to react to that. "Okay, well, let's get going."

Marshall looked at Fionna, _things were just going well. Why the fluff did it have to go downhill so fast?_ He thought he knew why. He hugged her, "I'm sorry, Fi. This is all my fault. I shouldn't have given you that sword. I should have just left well enough alone, be friends like always."

She wriggled out of his hug, "Stop feeling sorry for yourself. I love my sword; I might regret being careless with it, but that's _my _fault, not yours. And _I_ like you. Maybe I would've told you if you hadn't told me first. Either way, I don't regret liking you. You're awesome, and, no matter how bad you think you are, you aren't, so get that out of your head. Let's go." She stood up, away from his pity party. Looking down at his shocked face, she added, "Get dressed, I will go grab my stuff."


	13. Chapter 13: The Nightosphere

Chapter Thirteen: The Nightosphere

Everything was some shade of red, and fire burned everywhere. Marshall and Fionna trekked over a shifting field of broken rock; they were a pretty good distance away from their destination. "Be careful, Fionna!" Marshall was floating above Fionna, who was really doing all of the trekking.

"You know what? Right now would be a pretty good time for you to carry me!" They had to yell over the noise of the collisions of the rock. Fionna felt the weight relieved from her feet as Marshall grabbed her waist and held her tight.

"We're gonna make one stop before we get there, okay?"

"Where?"

"You'll see." They continued flying over the seemingly endless field, when they finally saw the edge, leading to a road. Approaching the end of the field, they felt the ground rhythmically rumble. Marshall darted behind a crumbling brick wall that rested just on the edge of the new found road. For a split second, before they were totally hidden behind the wall, Fionna could see the top of a giant pink being, walking down the road.

"What is it?" Fionna whispered.

Marshall quietly responded, "Just one of the many exciting creatures that live around here. You never know who she has recruited to be on the lookout for enemies. We shouldn't be seen by anyone."

"Okay," Fionna nodded her head. She wanted to look up to see the monster in its entirety, but she knew better. Stay hidden: that was their goal. The rumbling of the earth died down after a minute, and Marshall invisibly looked around the wall; he could see bat-like beings flying around in the distance, along with other random creatures mingling around further down on a sloped part of the road.

"This is where it gets tricky." Marshall could easily turn invisible and fly right past everyone, but for Fionna, it wasn't that easy. He turned to Fionna, visible once more, "Do you see that house? At the top of the hill?"

Fionna pulled her bunny ears down, so they wouldn't give their position away, leaned past Marshall, and glanced around the wall, scanning for the house. "Um, yeah, yeah I see it."

"That's where we are going to make our first stop."

She sat back against the wall, "What's there?"

"My 'connections' I told you about. The girl that helped me with your sword."

"What is she going to do?"

"My hopes are that she can help you with your terrible ninja skills." He nudged her arm, smiling.

Fionna lightly pushed him back but was again somber. She looked at the hill again, "How are we going to get past those bats? Or whatever they are." They didn't look completely like bats; their heads resembled a rabbit with horns.

"Well, I'm not sure yet." He thought for a moment more, "We could try flying below the edge of the road, above the lava...The only problem is that there are things that live in there too...hm."

"What if we disguised ourselves?"

Marshall said, "That's actually not a bad idea. It's risky, but not too shabby." They looked around at their options; all that was at their disposal was dirt and more dirt. "Okay, let's dirty you up."

"Well, wait, what's the plan? We just rub dirt on our faces?" How was that going to do anything?

"I think I will just be invisible. And yes, you will rub dirt on your face and take your hat off. That will be a dead giveaway." He reached up and slipped her hat off, her blonde hair falling to her waist. He would've loved to admire her beauty for a little longer, but they had a job to do. Picking up handfuls of dirt, Marshall started dirtying up Fionna's face, trying to make her look like some poor random citizen. He finished and looked at his work. She looked pretty bad, but her hair was still too...pretty, and her clothes were dirty, but they were still a good identifier. "Okay, we gotta mess your hair up a bit."

Fionna sighed and said, "Glob."

Marshall smiled as he began messing up her hair. He threw some dirt in there, ratted up parts here and there. Overall, she looked bad, which was good. _But the clothes..._He took off his red plaid shirt and handed it to Fionna, "Put this on; it will cover your clothes up."

"Um, okay." She slipped on the shirt and buttoned it up. "How do I look?"

Marshall laughed, "Horrible, but that amazing shirt makes it a little better."

Fionna rolled her eyes and asked, "Are we ready?"

"Yeah, let's go." Marshall turned invisible, whispering in Fionna's ear, "Just stand up and start walking. No one should suspect anything. I will be right by your side the entire time, okay?"

"Okay." Fionna cautiously stood up and made her way from behind the crumbling wall. She looked around at the road; it extended in both directions. To her left, it headed through more rock fields. To her right, the road went on for a way and then sloped to a hill, which she couldn't see where it lead to beyond that. Over the edge of the road that sloped, she could see the lava Marshall had mentioned. _Like the ocean in Aaa_, she thought. She headed toward the hill, trying to look inconspicuous.

"Just stay calm," Marshall's voice was hushed, somewhere near Fionna. She took a deep breath and continued walking. Nearer and nearer she came to the busy part of the road. "Go behind the house; we'll go through the back door." Fionna followed his directions, making her way past the first set of creatures. They weren't humans, that she knew for sure. Some resembled demons, like Marshall and his mom, others looked like animals. She passed a bear talking to a bird, both looked sickly, eyes bloodshot. The slope to the top of the hill began. She made her way through creatures of all shapes and sizes. To get to the top of the hill, Fionna had to move around the giant legs of the pink monster that had passed them earlier. Around the leg, she could see what lay beyond the hill. There was a narrow bridge leading to a more populated area with more buildings. From the hill, Fionna could also look out for miles. She stared in awe at the sheer massiveness of the Nightosphere until she felt a small tug on her shirt, reminding her to keep going. The house was within reach, only a few yards away. She closed the gap between her and the house, heading behind toward the back door. The door was right there in front of her, with two creatures standing in the way.

"I don't know what the big deal is, but she's offering a reward," one of the creatures stated. He was a green, scaly, lizard, leaning against the wall next to someone else. The other looked like another vampire, with two visible dots on her neck.

"I don't know, but I don't care. The reward is probably permanent death, knowing her."

Fionna didn't know if she should approach the door. She looked around, but, of course, couldn't see Marshall Lee. She felt a slight pat on her back, telling her to go on. She walked as normally as she could to the door.

"Hey, what are you..." The vampire looked at the tattered girl confused. "Have I seen you before?"

"Um, I don't think so; I'm just trying to get in there." What else could she have said?

"Why would you want to go in there?"

"I, uh, have business to take care of."

The vampire looked at the lizard, one eyebrow raised. "Why don't you go on, I'll take care of this."

"You sure?" The lizard didn't know if he should stay for backup, not sure what threat this homeless wreck could really be.

"Yeah." The lizard walked off reluctantly, looking back one last time before rounding the corner of the house to the road beyond. Once he was out of sight, the vampire turned to Fionna, "What do you want?"


	14. Chapter 14: Emergency Exit

Chapter Fourteen: Emergency Exit

Marshall reappeared next to Fionna, "Hey, Sarah."

The suspicious vampire smiled at the sight of him, "Marshall Lee. What are you doing back here so soon?" She looked at Fionna again, "Is that her?" Sarah knew that something was happening with Marshall and his little girlfriend; the ruler of the Nightosphere had put out an order for all citizens to be on the lookout for the two of them.

He smiled back, "Yeah, this is her; can we come inside?"

"No problem, anything for my favorite Vampire King." Fionna watched the two converse. Should I be worried? Nah, it's probably alright. She followed Marshall through the door that Sarah had opened for them.

Once the door was shut, Marshall started the introductions. "Sarah, this is Fionna, as you've already figured out, the girl we made that sword for." Sarah eyed Fionna, who was embarrassed she looked so ratty compared to Marshall, who was still without a shirt... "And Fionna, this is Sarah; she's been a friend of mine for forever now." Fionna eyed Sarah right back. She was almost as tall as Fionna, only a few inches shorter. Her dark brown hair fell just above her shoulders. She was pretty, beautiful even. Her green eyes almost glowed in the darkness of the room.

"Cool, nice to meet you." She turned to Marshall, taking off the plaid, "Here's your shirt, Marshall."

Sarah raised an eyebrow, noticing the exchange of clothes. She had had her days of living like a fugitive, and this scene wasn't all that foreign. "So, I imagine that you guys aren't here for a friendly visit."

Marshall walked to the living room and sat on the couch, patting the cushion next to him, inviting Fionna to sit with him. He said, "No, we aren't. I was wondering if you could help us." He put an arm around Fionna, who had sat beside him, trying to fix her hair.

Sarah sat in a chair across from them, "With what? What's going on? Your mom is going totally crazy right now, crazier than usual. She told everyone to watch for you two and not to let you anywhere near her place. What did you guys do?"

"We didn't do anything! She kidnapped my best friend!" Fionna was getting worked up again; she didn't want to be sitting in this stranger's living room. She wanted to be out getting Cake! If this chick has something that can help, though, I can stand being here for just a little longer...

"Whoa, okay, girl. No need to yell at me, I didn't do anything."

Marshall rubbed Fionna's shoulder reassuringly, "We need help getting through the Nightosphere, unseen by everyone. Well, Fionna needs help. Do you have anything?"

Sarah thought for a moment, "Let me look. I might be able to whip something up real quick." She headed toward the doorway, vanishing in the hallway that lay just to the right, leading to the other side of the house.

Once she was out of earshot, Fionna asked, "So, she's a vampire...and a witch?"

Marshall looked at Fionna, "Sarah is a vampire, but her mom was a witch. She picked up some of her mothers' tricks, but she's not a witch. Not everyone can make magic naturally, but anyone can learn how to make enchantments and junk."

Fionna nodded in understanding, "That's cool," there was something else on her mind, "Has she, uh, always been just a friend? Or..."

He looked at Fionna bewildered, "There was never anything between the two of us," he laughed. "Do I sense a bit of jealousy, Fionna?"

"No! I'm just...making sure I guess. Jeez, it was just a question." She was embarrassed she asked.

Sarah came back to the living room, "I do have something that can help. I just don't have everything to make it; I'll have to pick up a couple things from my guy, but then I can start cooking." She looked at Fionna with compassion, "You can clean up in the bathroom; it's just down the hallway. Marshall, I will be right back. You two stay here."

Marshall stood and thanked his friend, who left the house with a blue backpack around her shoulders. Fionna wandered down the dark hallway, trying to find the bathroom. Once she found it, she commenced washing and detangling her hair. She looked down at the dirt falling to the sink's drain, "What the Björk; the dirt never ends," she mumbled to herself. Marshall, who had followed her to the bathroom, laughed.

"Sorry, was just trying to blend you in. It looks like it's coming out, though." He walked to Fionna, who was awkwardly bent over the sink, and began plucking chunks of dirt from her hair. He laughed once more, "You're hair is almost as brown as Sarah's."

While she was scrubbing her hair around Marshall's plucking, she asked, "What is she going to do?"

Through the water running over Fionnas' ears, she heard him respond, "I hope that she will be able to give you something to totally change your look, make you look like an actual creature of the Nightosphere. I think we got lucky on the road back there that no one was feeling particularly confrontational."

"Hm." They continued cleaning up Fionna in silence, there wasn't really anything else to say. And Fionna wasn't going to be relieved until Cake was back, although, Marshall being with her seemed to calm her down some.

"You're blonde again!" Marshall backed away; Fionna wrung her hair out over the sink and stood.

She sighed, "That feels much better. Is she back yet?"

Marshall and Fionna walked down the hallway, "No, she's not."

"How long has it been?"

Marshall tensed up, "I'm not sure. Let's just hang out here until she's comes back. Maybe she's just taking her time.

"Do you think she'd..."

"Turn us in? No. No, I don't." He sat back on the couch, feeling exhausted. He had forgotten that they had woken up extremely early. Cake just had to come over. Everything was going fine; doesn't the thing trust me? We've known each other for like, I don't know, ever? She's so annoying. I hope she's okay, though...He wasn't sure if his mom would actually do anything to the cat. She might just keep her in that box for a few years until she decides to do anything with her. Time didn't really mean anything to someone who lived for centuries upon centuries.

And Sarah. Where was she? It's never taken her this long to pick up her stuff from that jerk of a magic dealer...I guess we'll find out soon enough what happened. He really didn't think she'd turn them in; they'd been childhood friends and trusted each other to no end. He expected her to come walking through the door any minute now, her backpack full of the supplies she needed to make whatever it was that would help them.

Fionna sat next to Marshall, resting her newly washed head on his shoulder, realizing how tired she was as well. She yawned and asked, "Do you think if we took a quick nap, that'd be alright?" She really didn't want to stay there any longer, but she knew she wouldn't be able to do much good without sleep.

Marshall pulled her close, and they leaned back on the couch, "That's not a bad idea at all." They fell asleep waiting for Sarah.

Fionna woke up on the couch under a blanket. When she realized she was alone on the couch, she looked around and saw Marshall on the chair across from her. He sat sideways, legs sprawled out over the armrests, looking at the ceiling. He heard Fionna stir and looked over, "You, are a bed hog."

Fionna laughed, "Sorry." She scanned the room for Sarah, "Is she back yet?"

He sighed in response, "No. No, she's not. I'm not sure what is taking her so long; I just hope nothing happened." They sat in silence until Marshall heard Fionna's stomach growl; he laughed, "You hungry?"

"Yeah, starving."

He flew to the kitchen, which was opened to the living room. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind if we took just a little of her food." After a few seconds of shuffling through cabinets, Marshall tossed Fionna some crackers.

She caught the crackers, "Ugh, when am I going to get to eat some real food?"

"Be thankful she even has anything that you like." He looked at Fionna, who began munching on the crackers, "When this is all over, I will make you the awesomest meal you have ever eaten."

Fionna laughed, "You know how to cook?"

Marshall leaned against the fridge, acting cool, "Yeah, I'm handsome, good looking, hot, and can cook – no big deal."

"Charming." Marshall turned to find something for himself when the door slammed open.

It was Sarah. Marshall floated towards her, "What took you so long?"

She slammed the door behind her, "We need to leave. Now."

"Okay." Marshall wasn't surprised that this was happening; it took her forever, something probably did happen. He'd ask just what when they were in a safe location. "What about Fionna?"

Sarah was hurriedly shoving various items from the kitchen in her backpack. She grabbed a small yellow square, about the size of a quarter, which she tossed to Fionna. "Eat this...You ate my crackers?" Sarah would've ranted if she had more time, "Never mind. Let's just go."

Fionna caught the yellow square; the yellow part was a wrapper. Inside, there was a purple, candy looking square. She quickly popped it in her mouth, chewed, and swallowed. To her delight, it was grape flavored. Sarah had gone down the hallway to grab something and came back seconds later, ready to go, "We're gonna be flying. You wanna grab her?" She nodded to Marshall. There was a vicious banging at the front door followed by angry, threatening voices.

"Yeah," Marshall crossed from the kitchen to the living room where Fionna was. He wrapped his arm around her waist, and they all left the house through the back. Marshall was following Sarah's lead, which lead them over the edge of the road, towards the ocean of lava.

Sarah yelled, "Turn invisible!"

"What about Fionna?" Marshall yelled back.

"Just do it!"

First, Sarah vanished, then Marshall, and with him, Fionna. He looked down at the girl by his side, but couldn't see her. He smiled an invisible smile, "Sick."

Fionna saw Sarah disappear and looked up at Marshall, he had gone invisible too. She didn't understand how she was safe...Everyone can still see me...She felt her hair blowing over her eyes. She reached up her hand to get it out of her face and finally realized that she was invisible too. "Whoa, Marshall! I'm invisible!"

She heard his laugh, "I know! Now you know what it's like."

She didn't hear what he said; she was too distracted by how cool this situation just became. "This is so radical; I can't even put it into words."

Sarah yelled back, "We are going to that big mountain, up ahead. See it?"

Marshall looked beyond them, in the distance there was one mountain that was taller than all the rest, away from the city area that was on the other side of the narrow bridge. "Yeah, we'll meet you there!"

"What I gave her is only temporary, so get there fast!"

From there, they seemingly split. They couldn't see each other, so they didn't know otherwise. A few minutes passed, and Fionna was still looking for her hands and arms. She thought it was so cool that no one could see her, and she couldn't see Marshall or Sarah. I guess that makes sense, but I never thought about two people being invisible at once. I would've thought they could see each other...To her, it almost felt like she was flying on her own, but the feeling of Marshall's arm around her was a reminder that she wasn't alone. Marshall's voice broke her thoughts, "You doing alright?"

"Yeah, just don't drop me, okay?" They were still flying above the lava, which didn't seem to end until it reached the mountains.

Marshall wrapped his other arm around her, "Better?"

"Yeah." Fionna smiled. A few more minutes passed; they were almost at the mountain. They could see lights falling from the sky in the distance. "What is that?"

Marshall looked around to see what Fionna was talking about. When he saw it, he sighed and replied, "Lovely. It's raining."

* * *

**Sorry about the first upload of this chapter...not sure what happened there. Hopefully it's all fixed now.**


	15. Chapter 15: Instant Ninja Skills

Chapter Fifteen: Instant Ninja Skills

"This is definitely _not _rain!" Marshall and Fionna, still invisible, were dodging the flaming balls of rocks, shooting from the red sky.

"It's rain as far as the Nightosphere is concerned," Marshall was trying his best to avoid setting the pair on fire. He looked around for somewhere to take shelter, but they were still over the lava; the only cover was the mountain, and they were almost there. He wondered if Sarah was there yet..._We'd probably hear her if she was hit by the rain._ Fionna felt the air moving faster over her face, the fire balls zipping past her ears in whistling crackles. She heard Marshall mumble, "We're almost there." The gap between them and the mountain was closing fast; soon they'd be out of the "rain".

When they finally reached it, Fionna pointed out below them a small opening leading to a cave. Marshall flew them down; Sarah was sitting inside, relieved to be away from whomever she was running from. Marshall reappeared, while Fionna simultaneously did the same. Fionna sat across from Sarah, resting on a flat boulder. "So what was that about?"

Marshall flew past the two girls and sat between them while Sarah explained, "Long story short, my guy has not been too happy lately. He isn't sticking to our original deal; can you believe that?" She shook her head, "Asking me to pay double my usual. So I took what I needed and ran." Sarah noticed the disapproving look from Fionna, and she added, "What? I gave him what I usually do! It's not like I robbed that insensitive toad! If anything, he was trying to rob _me!_"

"What now?" Marshall asked.

"I brought everything to make Fionna a better, long lasting potion." She started digging through her backpack. "That thing you ate earlier, Fionna, that was only temporary. It maybe lasts around twenty minutes. What it does, is allows you to turn invisible when someone you're touching does. I have a few of those on stock for some of my friends...I don't use them as much anymore, though." She was staring at the wall of the cave, zoned out. A few seconds passed, and she came to, "Anyway, with this stuff," she held up a handful of items, "I can make you a stronger, long lasting spell that can last for weeks. And, bonus, you don't have to rely on someone else's ability." She pulled out a bowl from her backpack and began tossing and pouring chunks and powders inside, "It _gives _you the ability, independent of anyone else; pretty cool if you ask me."

Fionna was practically bouncing in her seat, she was so excited. "Will I be able to fly?"

Sarah thought for a moment, "Maybe. I know it will definitely give you invisibility; we'll just have to see if it will allow you to fly, as well."

Marshall smiled, "Oh, man, Fionna. That lasts for weeks! We are going to have so much fun when we get back to Aaa."

Fionna smiled wide; she couldn't wait to see if she could fly. She watched Sarah mix together some more colorful powders and mumble some sort of chants. Her mind was filling with excitement, until Sarah called Marshall over. "This is the not-so-fun part." Marshall slid to Sarah's side, "I will need some of your blood."

At that, Fionna paled. "Um, what?"

"I know, it's gross. But, if you want to get Cake back, you're gonna have to do some things you're not gonna like. This is some pretty crazy magic going down up in here; this kind of magic can get a little weird."

Fionna's excitement was no more. She seemed to shrink in her seat; she reluctantly replied, "Okay."

Marshall held out his hand, "How much do you need?" He didn't like the idea either. _This is going to be so gross. She has to drink this stuff..._A breeze went through the cave, sending the smell of the mixture in the bowl to him. _Aw, stuff. It doesn't even smell pleasant. This is going to be a little brutal..._

"Only a drop or two, not that much." She pulled out a needle from her pack and pricked Marshall's finger. He watched as blood dripped into the bowl. When it hit the mixture inside, the blood seemed to go up into smoke. Sarah mixed it all with her hands and showed the bowl to Fionna. She leaned over to look at what she had to ingest; it was a liquid now.

"So, I have to...drink it?" She was hoping Sarah would tell her otherwise, but the look in her eyes told her she wouldn't be so lucky. Fionna reached out and grasped the bowl, looking at Marshall with panicked eyes. _This is all for Cake...All for Cake..._She took a deep breath and poured the liquid into her mouth, trying not to taste it. When it first hit her tongue, it sent memories to Fionna of a time when BMO had tried to make her own juice. Little did Fionna and Cake know BMO had used all sorts of weird foods to make it: onions, bananas, pickles, and ice cream. Needless to say, Cake and Fionna did not feel good that day.

She gulped the last of the liquid black liquid and handed the bowl to Sarah. Marshall drifted next to Fionna, "How do you feel?"

"Um, I don't know. I don't really feel any different." She knew that she wasn't blowing chunks like she did with BMO's juice, so that was a step up.

Sarah said, "It might take a minute or two for the effects to come into play. Just wait a little bit; you guys will be out of here in no time."

Fionna looked at Marshall, "How do you do it? Turn invisible and all that junk?"

Marshall sat on the rock next to her, "I just...I can't quite explain it. I just feel it. I make it happen. It's all in the mind; you just gotta kind of _will_ yourself to do it. Same with flying, which I can't wait to see if you can do that. It's not that I don't enjoy carrying you around all the time; it would just be easier if you could do that yourself."

"Tell me about it. I can't tell you how many situations I've been in where flying could've come in extremely handy."

Sarah said, "You should see if you can do it now. It will probably be ready now."

Fionna nodded, and Marshall put his hand on hers for reassurance. _It's kind of like the sword; I just have to will myself to be invisible._ She closed her eyes and concentrated disappearing. Her eyes opened, and she looked down at her hand, still visible under Marshall's. "Tops blooby."

"Try it again," Sarah knew her magic was well crafted; it was going to work.

Fionna tried it again, concentrating harder, focusing on being invisible. It wasn't easy for someone who had no idea what they were doing. Her eyes opened again; she looked down at her hand and _didn't see it_! "Radical!"

"That is awesome! Dude, this is so cool!" Marshall was just as excited as Fionna.

"Now try to fly." Sarah wanted to see what all her creation could do.

Fionna reappeared, "Okay." She concentrated on flying, not closing her eyes this time; she wanted to see herself in action. A few seconds went by, and she felt the rock disappear from under her.

Marshall let her hand go, "Sick. This is so sick. Fionna, do you know how sick this is?"

Fionna had another big smile on her face, "Yeah, Marshall! This is awesome." She could barely contain her laughter from the excitement of everything. She put herself back on the ground next to Marshall, "Okay, let's go. We need to get to Cake." Her emotions kept conflicting with one another. All this kick-butt stuff was happening, but she couldn't be totally happy about everything until Cake was finally back.

"Okay, let's go. You think you can handle flying out there without me helping you?"

"I guess we will find out," she turned to Sarah. "Thanks so much. You can only imagine how much this will help."

"No probs. But you two owe me." Sarah leaned back against the wall.

Marshall looked at her, "Are you just gonna chill out here until those guys leave?"

"Pretty much. I hang here a lot anyway, no biggy."

Marshall frowned at that. He didn't like seeing his friend kicked out of her own house for fear of someone attacking her. That was just messed up. Then again, he had known Sarah for a long time, and she has always been getting herself into trouble ever since they were kids. "Okay, we'll see you later. And stay out of trouble! You worry me sometimes, Sarah." He turned to Fionna and asked, "You ready?" She nodded. He grabbed her hand, and they flew from the opening of the cave, crossing the lava once more. Fionna was struggling to keep her balance in the air, but Marshall helped stabilize her. Sarah watched them fly off until they went disappeared.

Sarah sighed and leaned on her backpack. She mumbled to herself, "You just can't stay out of trouble, can you, Sarah?"


	16. Chapter 16: One Down

"I think I've finally gotten the hang of this." Fionna was pushing Marshall to let her hand go. She had almost fallen out of the sky twice, knocking into him, about bringing him down with her. He had taken her hand to keep her flying steady.

"I'm not letting you go, Fionna. Plus, since we're invisible, it keeps us going in the same direction." He had noticed that she was having difficulties managing that as well. She nearly gave them away earlier when they flew by a lava monster, swimming through the ocean. The creature didn't look too friendly, reminding Marshall of a time when he was younger and visiting his mother in the Nightosphere. He had gone off on his own, scoping out trouble. When he found a lava monster casually swimming around, he made the mistake of tormenting him. The fiery red monster burst from the lava; Marshall was lucky he flew away fast enough; that would've been it for him, unless some miracle happened.

"I guess that makes sense, but I don't like it...Well, I mean, I _do_ like it, but, you know what I mean!" Marshall laughed. "I just want to fly on my own, to stop being babied."

"Well, if Sarah did a good job on this spell, you'll have plenty of time to fly on your own when we get back."

"Yeah, you're right." She focused on their surroundings. Straight ahead, the lava was coming to an end. There lay another shifting rock field in place of the sand that was on the beaches in Aaa. She watched the lava ooze between the moving cracks; it had a natural, deathly beauty about it. Just above the shifting rock field, there lay a city. "Is that where that narrow bridge back there leads to?"

"The city? Yeah, that's why there were so many people on the road by Sarah's; they were trying to get to the city where probably most of them live."

Fionna looked at the buildings; they looked like normal old buildings, nothing that special about them, beside the skulls and bones that seemed to be the décor on many of them. She continued to scope the city while Marshall guided them on in silence. But the silence didn't last long.

"Did you hear that?" Marshalls' eyes darted around, looking for the source of the sound.

"Hear what? I didn't hear anything." Fionna was straining to listen, but all she could hear was the mumble of people from the city. She was about to say something to Marshall when she _did_ hear it. A large, dark shadow darkened the lava beneath them; an ear-bloodying shriek rang through the air. "Okay, yep. Definitely heard it."

"Come on, these guys mean bad news." Marshall led them to the rock field, under an overhang in the dirt. Under the cover, they reappeared. "Let's just stay here, and wait for him to pass by." Fionna nodded and looked out at the lava ocean; it was pretty much stationary beside the fractions that were moving between the rocks. Marshall Lee and Fionna sat back far enough on the rock field that the rocks didn't even move; they were anchored to the earth behind them. Because they weren't moving, the cracks remained the same size, and they were really thin, so the lava couldn't get through. She watched the shadow circle around the air where she and Marshall had just been. It had wings; that she knew for sure. It also seemed to have an elongated beak, but that's all she could make out from the shadow.

"Is it looking for us?"

"Yeah. My mom sends these things out sometimes as bounty hunters. In this case, they're looking out for us. They have a crazy sense of smell, so even you're invisible, they'll find you. I don't know why she's acting so insane, but she is."

"I'll say. She took Cake! And she would've taken me!"

Marshall put his chin on his knees, looking out at the shadow. "Yeah..." The shadow circled the area some more and finally flew off. "Alright, let's head out."

"How much longer till we get there?" Fionna was anxious to be done with the journey.

"We just have to get through the city; from there, it's just a matter of getting past my mom and rescuing Cake."

"Okay," Fionna was a little relieved, but she still wasn't satisfied.

Marshall looked at her and smiled, trying to lighten her mood. "Don't worry, we'll get Cake and be out of here in no time; I promise." Fionna flashed a small smile back at him.

She turned invisible and grabbed Marshall's hand, "Okay, let's go." They flew out of the overhang and looped back to get into the city. Flying closer to the ground to steer clear of the bounty hunter, Fionna and Marshall passed many different faces and buildings. There were a lot more non-animal faces lingering around to Fionna's surprise. She took interest in some of the scenes that played out on the streets: Creatures helping others out, having normal conversations. Fionna was always under the impression that the people in the Nightosphere are all so evil. _Probably because of all the things Marshall says about how awful this place is...Maybe I should rethink some things..._They flew until they saw the Abadeer castle come into view. Fionna and Marshall passed a couple more buildings and then were standing on the edge of the peninsula that the city rested on. A few yards lay between them and the cliff leading to more lava. The lava formed a canal from the peninsula and the island where the castle was. "Alright! We're almost there!"

"Yep! We just have to—wait. Look over there." Marshall reappeared next to Fionna and pointed to a boulder on the edge of the cliff. She followed his pointed finger to the boulder; next to it was a moving black dot. They were so far away; they couldn't make out what it was. "Let's go check it out."

They were both transparent again and walked hand in hand to the black dot. As they got closer, Fionna realized what it was. "Gunther!" She ran to the penguin and picked him up, "We found him!" Some of her guilt evaporated from the incident with Ice Queen.

Gunther, who had no idea who was picking him up, freaked out. "Wenk! Wenk! Wenk!" Marshall and Fionna reappeared; Gunther didn't stop freaking out. He wasn't a big fan of Fionna, and he was reaching for Marshall. "Wenk! Wenk! Wenk!"

Fionna looked a little disappointed that he wasn't happy in her arms. "I think he wants you."

Marshall scoffed, "What? I don't think so."

"Just take him; I don't want him running off." She held the squirming penguin out to the reluctant vampire.

He took him, and Gunther stopped squirming. Marshall was shocked, "Huh? Would you look at that?"

Fionna noticed her wrist felt a little...naked. She looked at her arm and saw that her sword wasn't there. "Hey! Give that back!" Gunther was holding the bracelet in his flippers. Marshall fought with the penguin over it, and finally pried it out of his grasp.

"Geez, this penguin's got some probs."

Fionna slipped the bracelet back on, mumbling to the penguin, "Poo brain."

"Alright, well. One down, one to go. Now, we just have to get into her "throne room", or whatever you want to call it, and grab the box that Cake's in. Then I can open a portal and have us home before anyone even knows we were here."

"How will we get her out of the box?"

Marshall sighed, "That's where you're pretty boy, Flame Prince, will come in handy."


End file.
